27: Chapter 27 The First Days of Live Streaming

The day Douyin's live streaming feature went online.

8:00 PM.

The Xiao Yang brothers had just finished filming a comedy video and were huddled in their rented room eating takeout.

The older brother, Da Yang, was scrolling through notifications on the backend, his chopsticks suspended in mid-air.

The two brothers used to work in a factory. Later, after downloading Douyin and filming Short Videos, they became famous and were now among the bloggers with the most followers on the platform.

"Douyin is starting live streaming; they sent us an invitation for the internal testing."

The younger brother, Xiao Yang, leaned over to take a look.

"Live streaming? Isn't that Douyu and Huya's thing? Why would we comedy video makers do live streaming?"

"Let's give it a try. We don't have anything else to do tonight anyway."

Da Yang put down his chopsticks, propped his phone up on the table, and clicked 'Start Stream'.

When the screen lit up, there were only a few dozen scattered people in the stream, and the comments were floating by slowly.

Da Yang waved at the camera. After hesitating for a long time, he managed to squeeze out, "Hello everyone, I'm Da Yang," and then didn't know what else to say.

He sat there for five minutes. Instead of increasing, the number of people in the stream dropped from dozens to just over ten.

"Forget it, let's end the stream. This isn't something we can do."

Da Yang closed the stream and tossed his phone onto the sofa.

Xiao Yang laughed beside him.

"Like I said, we aren't streamers."

Although Douyin's live streaming was in internal testing, most bloggers didn't pay much attention to it because they had never streamed before and didn't know how to create a good live effect.

However...

At the same time, in another live stream, the scene was completely different.

Jiang Youyou sat on the sofa in her apartment, wearing a simple white hoodie with her jet-black long hair falling loosely over her shoulders. She tuned two notes on her guitar and smiled at the camera.

"Good evening, babies. I'm not playing games today; I'll sing a song for you."

The number of online viewers in the stream jumped up at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Three thousand, five thousand, ten thousand, twenty thousand.

The comments scrolled rapidly, and the gift special effects almost never stopped.

The fan base she had accumulated on Douyu flooded in at this moment.

"Youyou's stream is still the most interesting."

"Does Douyin's live stream quality seem better than Douyu's?"

"The key is that there aren't so many ads here, and the interface is clean."

By the end of the stream, Jiang Youyou's peak concurrent viewers surpassed eighty thousand.

For a platform like Douyin that had just launched its live streaming feature, this number was already very impressive—but everyone knew clearly that this was not the norm for Douyin live streaming.

Jiang Youyou's success could not be replicated because she was the only major streamer who dared to directly breach her contract to jump over from Douyu.

...

The next day, at Inspur Technology.

Zhao Lei pulled up the backend live streaming data and scrolled through it from start to finish, his expression showing little emotion.

"Except for Jiang Youyou, the data for other streamers is very average. A dozen online viewers is the norm, and breaking a hundred is considered good."

"The Xiao Yang brothers opened their stream for twenty minutes last night before closing it. They never had more than a hundred people from start to finish."

He paused, a hint of uncertainty hidden in his tone.

"Boss, will it really work if we don't poach streamers?"

Qin Mo leaned back in his chair, holding a cup of soy milk, his expression very calm.

"No need to poach."

"But Douyu and Huya have already started guarding against us."

"I heard they added supplementary agreements for all their top streamers, doubling the breach of contract penalties, just for fear of them being poached by us."

"Furthermore, the people over at Tencent are also telling streamers on various platforms that Douyin doing live streaming is a joke and advising them not to come."

"Let them guard."

Qin Mo put down the soy milk.

"Douyin live streaming doesn't need to poach a single streamer."

Zhao Lei was stunned for a moment.

"Then where will our streamers come from?"

"From Douyin itself."

Qin Mo turned around and looked at the unremarkable live stream data table on the screen.

"The people streaming now are the first batch of internal testers."

"When the live streaming feature is fully opened, when every person who has filmed a video on Douyin can start a stream with one click, how many people do you think will stream? A hundred thousand? Five hundred thousand? A million?"

He paused.

"We don't need to go to other platforms to poach people; Douyin will grow its own streamers."

"An ordinary person who has posted videos on Douyin for two months and accumulated tens of thousands of followers, and then one day clicks the 'Start Stream' button—that is a Douyin streamer."

"They have no signing fees and no guaranteed salary, but they are the most authentic content producers on this platform."

Zhao Lei thought about it and didn't say anything more.

...

Tencent Group Headquarters.

The atmosphere in the meeting room was much more relaxed than usual.

Several executives were circulating a data report on Douyin's live streaming, which marked the number of streamers and average online viewers on the first day.

"Jiang Youyou alone accounts for nearly half of the platform's live streaming traffic. The remaining streamers have an average of less than triple digits online."

"What does this show? It shows that Douyin's live streaming relies solely on one Jiang Youyou to prop it up; they don't have a second capable streamer at all."

An executive tossed the report onto the table, laughing quite smugly.

"That's right."

"The live streaming industry is different from Short Videos. Short Videos are about 'content is king,' while live streaming is 'person-oriented'."

"Users watch live streams for the streamer, not for the platform."

"If Douyin doesn't poach people, where will the streamers come from? Do they expect those amateurs filming comedy videos to turn into big streamers themselves?"

Another person nearby chimed in.

"I've checked. Among all the top streamers on Douyu and Huya, except for Jiang Youyou who breached her contract, not a single one has received a poaching call from Douyin. Not one."

"That's even more hilarious. They want to do live streaming but don't go poaching streamers?"

Everyone burst into laughter.

Someone added a comment.

"Douyin is probably just testing this feature and doesn't really want to make live streaming big. After all, Weikan is biting them so hard right now that they don't dare to divide their energy further."

At this moment.

Zhang Li, the analyst wearing glasses in the corner, hesitated for a moment and spoke up.

"However, I find it a bit strange."

"Every move Qin Mo has made since Douyin went online hasn't been random. If he doesn't poach streamers, it must be because he feels he doesn't need to. But why would he feel he doesn't need to?"

The meeting room went quiet for a beat.

Then someone waved their hand.

"You're overthinking it. He's indeed impressive for creating Short Videos, but live streaming and Short Videos are two different industries."

Zhang Li wanted to say more, but Sun Qiang, sitting in the main seat, spoke up.

"Have you all forgotten..."

"Douyin's current achievements?"

The laughter in the meeting room stopped.

Sun Qiang turned a page of the report in his hand, his tone flat.

"What is Douyin's current Daily Active Users (DAU)?"

No one answered.

"Three million. Our Weikan is also at three million."

Sun Qiang put down the report, his gaze sweeping over everyone present.

"Reaching three million DAU in three and a half months since launch, and the average usage time per person is several times that of our Weikan."

"Naming a web variety show that no one thought highly of and forcing it to become the hottest program in the country."

"Douyin's live streaming indeed poses no threat, but Douyin itself has already far surpassed our Weikan."

The meeting room was so quiet that the sound of the air conditioning vent could be heard.

Sun Qiang stood up.

"Weikan's current DAU was smashed out using Tencent's traffic and activities, not retained by the product itself."

"Douyin's DAU relies on the users themselves, who scroll and scroll and don't want to leave."

"These two 'three millions' are not the same 'three million' at all!"

He walked to the projection and pointed at the average daily duration data for Weikan shown above.

"We only have one chance now. Before the big data and algorithms are implemented, mock others less and look at yourselves more."

After speaking.

Sun Qiang looked at the others.

"How much longer for our big data?"

"It has entered the final refinement stage, half a month at most," someone replied.

"Then in one month, I want to see the big data algorithm on Weikan!"