29: Chapter 29 Gap

Liu Yang was yanked out of bed by his roommate, Old Zhang.

"Liu Yang! Weikan has updated! Didn't you always complain about how hard it was to use? Now they're saying they've launched some big data algorithm, and it's as accurate as Douyin's. Hurry up and try it!"

Rubbing his eyes, Liu Yang pulled his phone out from under his pillow and skeptically updated Weikan before opening it.

The first video was a basketball highlight reel.

It was a montage of NBA stars' best moments, with his favorite rock band playing in the background.

His finger paused; this was indeed something he enjoyed watching.

The second video was a sneaker review by a blogger he liked, featuring an unboxing of limited-edition shoes.

The third was a streetball highlight reel. Liu Yang's expression softened.

"It does seem a lot better than before. At least everything being recommended is basketball-related."

Watching from the side, Old Zhang breathed a sigh of relief.

"See? I told you, once Tencent gets serious, they've got the goods. Weikan might actually make it this time."

Liu Yang continued scrolling down.

The fourth video.

A tall girl in a tight athletic tank top was doing squats in a gym. The camera angle was from the bottom up. Liu Yang looked up at Old Zhang, who was also looking at him.

"This counts as sports-related, no problem there. Besides, I like looking at beautiful women anyway."

Liu Yang continued scrolling.

The fifth was another fitness girl, but this time the footage was more deliberate, with the camera's focus entirely on her physique.

The sixth was even more ridiculous: a girl in a basketball jersey shooting from beyond the three-point line, but the focus of the video clearly wasn't basketball.

Yet, the two of them still watched with great interest.

But soon, things started to feel off.

The seventh.

Liu Yang's finger stopped.

On the screen was a man dressed in women's clothing, wearing a wig and heavy makeup, mimicking a girl group's dance.

Weikan's algorithm gave the recommendation reason: "Content you might like."

Old Zhang took half a step back.

"Liu Yang, what on earth have you been watching on Weikan?"

"I haven't watched anything! It recommended this on its own!"

Liu Yang shoved the phone screen right into Old Zhang's face.

"Look! I just updated! I haven't scrolled through anything yet! It pushed this to me by itself!"

"How did these videos end up on my phone?"

"So you admit it's your phone!"

Seeing that he couldn't explain it clearly, Liu Yang began scrolling through Weikan frantically.

"This must be an accident. Wait until I scroll through a couple more!"

Old Zhang sat back down, still skeptical.

The next two videos were indeed normal, but before Liu Yang could breathe a sigh of relief...

Another new recommendation popped up on the screen.

It was a group of "male bodhisattvas" in tight shorts rubbing oil on each other in a gym. Old Zhang took another half-step back.

Below it was still the small text: "Content you might like."

"Liu Yang, I really didn't think you were..."

"Wait, let me explain." Old Zhang stood up once more.

Liu Yang slammed his phone onto the bed.

"I'm fucking straight!"

But Old Zhang had already run off. Liu Yang could only hear a voice echoing further and further through the boys' dormitory...

"Liu Yang is gay! Liu Yang is gay..."

Similar farces were playing out all across Great Xia that morning.

Girls who liked watching makeup tutorials hadn't scrolled far before Weikan's algorithm started recommending plastic surgery ads and personal shopper accounts for skincare products.

Middle-aged people who enjoyed calligraphy demonstrations would be scrolling along when suddenly a link to a livestream selling fake antiques would pop up.

The new version of Weikan's Recommendation Algorithm was indeed stronger than before, at least allowing users to find things they were interested in within the first few videos.

But only for the first few.

Its algorithmic logic was too crude and simplistic, lacking a deep learning model as a foundation, relying only on a few broad interest tags for correlation matching.

The sampling range for user behavior data was small, and weight distribution was imbalanced. Once a user's multi-dimensional interests overlapped, the pushed results would quickly become distorted and chaotic.

Although big data algorithms are indeed excellent, and even if Tencent's algorithm could only mimic the surface, it was still an extremely advanced delivery mechanism on a global scale.

However, compared to Douyin's algorithm, the two were simply not on the same level.

But regardless.

On the first day's data panel, Weikan's average usage time per person had indeed jumped from less than ten minutes to fifteen minutes.

The second day.

As more users completed the update, this number continued to climb, breaking twenty minutes.

...

Tencent Group Headquarters.

The second day after the launch of Weikan 2.0.

The conference room was packed, and the real-time data panel for Weikan's backend was frozen on the projection screen.

The number in the average usage time column was currently sitting steadily at twenty-one minutes.

Sun Qiang stood in front of the screen, holding a freshly printed data report. He read it twice from start to finish, a rare smile appearing at the corners of his mouth.

"Two days, and the average usage time has doubled."

He placed the report on the table, his gaze sweeping across everyone present.

"What does this show? It shows our direction is correct."

"With something like a big data algorithm, as long as the framework is built correctly, subsequent optimization is just a matter of time."

"Fifteen minutes on the first day, twenty minutes on the second—it will only get longer from here."

Zhang Li sat in the middle of the conference table, his expression more relaxed than it had been at any point in the past few months.

His laptop was open to Weikan's backend. Although the curve for average usage time was nowhere near as steep as Douyin's, it was finally starting to trend upward.

"General Manager Sun is right. And let's not forget, we have an advantage Douyin can never match: traffic entry points."

"Pop-ups from the Tencent Messaging App, recommendation slots on Tencent Video, cross-promotions in all our games... we're only using these resources normally right now; we haven't even fully committed them yet."

"Once they start working in tandem with the algorithm, this usage time will jump significantly higher."

In the corner.

The head of the Algorithm Task Force stared at the "twenty-one minutes" figure on the screen, his mouth slightly agape, his expression hard to read—somewhere between joy and confusion.

A colleague next to him leaned in and whispered.

"Our algorithm... it actually worked?"

The head didn't respond.

He couldn't figure it out himself. According to their evaluations during development, the underlying logic of this algorithm could only mimic thirty to forty percent of Douyin's at most.

Architectural flaws were too numerous to count, various bugs were constant during internal testing, and cases of distorted recommendations were everywhere.

Yet, the solid usage time curve on the screen was indeed rising.

Fifteen minutes on the first day, breaking twenty on the second—he had no reason to dispute the number.

But a weight still hung heavy in his heart.

"Starting now, all weekend breaks for the Weikan Project Team are canceled."

Sun Qiang's voice pulled him back from his daze.

"The Operations Team will produce a user retention analysis every week, the Algorithm Team will run a separate set of AB tests for every optimization iteration, and the Data Team will send a daily briefing directly to my email."

He paused and turned his gaze to Zhang Li.

"What's the situation with Daily Active Users?"

"Since the new version launched, the DAU has returned to 3.5 million, an increase of nearly 400,000."

"And this growth curve is different from before. Previously, it was sustained by pop-ups and rewards, dropping as soon as the activities stopped."

"This time, after the algorithm went live, the next-day retention of new users is significantly higher, indicating the recommendations are starting to work."

A data analyst added from the side.

"There's an even more critical point."

"While Douyin's average daily usage is still much stronger than ours and they have more DAUs, the growth rate of their new users has slowed down over the last two days."

"The show's hype is past its steepest phase. A downward trend is inevitable; it's impossible to maintain such high growth forever."

The conference room gradually became lively.

"I think we can re-evaluate Douyin's valuation now."

"That Qin Mo thought he could rest easy just because he had big data. Didn't we manage to develop it too?"

"He wouldn't agree to a one-billion-yuan acquisition before, but now..."

"I think Douyin is only worth a hundred million!"

At those words, several people laughed at once.

"A hundred million? Is he even worth that?"

"Now he'll be the one begging us to acquire him. Our algorithm is out, and with Tencent's traffic entry points, we're much more likely to take over the market."

"The longer he stalls at this juncture, the less Douyin is worth. In another two months, we might not even need to talk about acquisition; he'll probably have to close up shop and run."

"He came up with some big data and thought he was something special."

"He wouldn't sell for a billion then; now he probably won't even get a hundred million."

"The Short Video track ultimately comes down to who can burn more money. How long can a startup hold out?"

"Then again, we should thank Qin Mo for rejecting that billion."

"If he'd agreed back then and General Manager Sun had actually dropped a billion to buy Douyin, we wouldn't be sitting here having a celebration. Qin Mo saved us that money himself; we should treat him to a meal."

A wave of laughter filled the conference room.

Sun Qiang didn't join in the banter, but he didn't interrupt either, unlike before.

He just stared at the number on the screen for a long time: average usage time, twenty-one minutes.

Three days ago, it was nine minutes.

He'd been at Tencent for over a decade and had seen many products go from zero to one, and just as many go from one to zero.

Sometimes, the turning point for a product's comeback lies in a single version. Once that version stabilizes, subsequent iterations can be refined slowly.

Weikan was currently at exactly that turning point.

Douyin was certainly still ahead, but at least from now on, this path was no longer impassable.

"Starting today, everyone send me a data briefing at regular intervals."

Sun Qiang stood up. His voice wasn't loud, but every word carried the conviction of someone who could finally breathe a small sigh of relief.

"I want to monitor this number every day, right until the day it overtakes Douyin."

People in the conference room nodded one after another, their chairs scraping across the floor in an uneven chorus of sounds.

Some began packing up their laptops, others took out their phones to check messages, and the algorithm engineers in the corner were also tidying up, laughing and talking about where to go for a get-together tonight.

Only the head of the task force stayed behind for a few extra seconds.

He glanced at the data still ticking on the screen, then at the retreating backs of his colleagues.

He remembered that knowing look he'd exchanged with the colleague beside him when he'd told General Manager Sun "eighty percent."

And today, the number on the screen looked like it had actually succeeded.

Time.

Soon, the next day arrived.