37: Chapter 37 The PK That's Being Discussed Across the Internet

"Douyin Livestream PK: Single Session Revenue Breaks 10 Million."

Behind this trending search term was a deep red "Explosive" tag.

The second to fifth spots on the trending list were: "Lin Wanwan vs. Meizi PK Recording," "Si Cong's Gift War," "Douyu's Seven-Year Record Broken," and "What is PK?"

The topic "Douyu's Top Streamer Hits One Million Revenue," which had been trending at noon, had already been pushed to the very bottom of the list.

Clicking into the top trending topic, the pinned post was a complete recording of the livestream.

The video started from the moment the PK countdown began and lasted until the timer hit zero, ending with Lin Wanwan's points bar staying in the lead.

On the screen, the gift special effects from both sides almost never stopped; the exhaust flames of Carnivals and sports cars overlapped, and the bullet chat was so thick it completely obscured the streamers' faces.

The view count for this recording surpassed ten million within half an hour.

The words "Single Session Revenue Breaks 10 Million" were incredibly shocking to the general public.

Many netizens who didn't watch livestreams at all couldn't help but click in when they saw this entry.

After all, ten million in a single session was simply too exaggerated.

And below this trending search...

The comment section completely exploded.

"My hands were shaking while watching the recording. These two big shots are competing to see who goes bankrupt first."

"Douyu's seven-year record was broken by two Douyin streamers. Talk about a dimensional strike."

"The most ridiculous part is that Lin Wanwan was singing the whole time. She barely even thanked people for gifts, and she still won just like that."

"The big shots on both sides combined to spend nearly seven million. This PK is a rich man's harvester; it's too crazy."

"To be honest, seeing Lin Wanwan staring blankly at the screen at the end made me want to cry. She's probably never seen so many gifts in her life."

"At noon, Douyu was still posting battle reports about a million in revenue. By evening, an amateur on Douyin smashed through the ceiling. Even scriptwriters wouldn't dare write a plot like this."

The last dozen seconds of the recording were clipped separately and went viral.

Lin Wanwan sat on the left side of the screen holding her guitar, tears in the corners of her eyes. Her points bar displayed a number she had likely never seen before—over six million.

She stared at that number for a long time, her lips trembling several times, before finally squeezing out a single sentence: "Thank you, everyone."

Her voice was very soft, as if she were afraid of waking up from a dream.

However...

Among these comments, there were also some voices of doubt.

"This number is too exaggerated. Is it real or fake? Could it be Douyin's internal staff inflating the numbers?"

"I think so too. Over ten million in one session is really too much."

But very quickly...

Someone pointed out the identities of the big shots on both sides.

An analysis post was pushed to the top of the trending list.

The post detailed all identifiable sources of large gifts in this PK.

Si Cong spent nearly four million. His ID is verifiable across all platforms; everyone knows this second-generation rich heir.

Young Master He spent over three million. This ID is also very famous on Douyu and Huya, with previous records of spending hundreds of thousands in a single session.

As for Qian Yuan on Lin Wanwan's side, his identity as a second-generation mining tycoon was equally impossible to hide.

The last line of the post read: "The people who spent the most money all have real identities that can be verified. There is no possibility of the platform faking the revenue."

The voices of doubt were quickly drowned out.

However...

A few marketing accounts still tried to stir up trouble: "This level of spending by rich heirs cannot be replicated. Douyin's overall livestreaming ecosystem is still lacking."

But no one in the comment section was buying it.

"Cannot be replicated? Look at how many PK livestream rooms on Douyin have over ten thousand viewers tonight!"

"It's not just this one match. I just downloaded Douyin to take a look, and I easily stumbled upon several PK rooms with over a hundred thousand in revenue."

"A gift war between rich heirs might not be replicable, but ordinary users spending dozens or hundreds of yuan to vote for their favorite streamer in a PK—what other platform has ever offered this kind of sense of participation?"

The reactions of ordinary users were more persuasive than any PR piece.

More and more people on Weibo shared records of their first time spending money on Douyin, with amounts ranging from a few yuan to several hundred. The captions were surprisingly consistent: "I never used to spend money while scrolling through Douyin, but tonight I inexplicably spent dozens."

Others said...

They only spent six yuan on 'Tiny Hearts' in Lin Wanwan's room, but when they received the PK victory notification, they jumped off the sofa in excitement.

It felt like participating in a collective action rather than watching a performance that had nothing to do with them.

...

Meanwhile...

After the launch of Douyin's PK feature, its popularity spread at a jaw-dropping speed over the following days.

More and more PK recordings were reposted to major platforms. Some were hilarious—two gaming streamers PK'd, and the loser had to shave their eyebrows on the spot.

Some were touching; a blogger fighting cancer received a large gift crowdfunded by fans during a PK and cried in front of the camera for a long time.

Some were purely skill-based duels—two talented streamers showed off their skills on the same screen, leaving viewers unsure whether to watch the left or the right side.

These recordings spread like a virus, attracting a large number of users who had never watched livestreams before to download Douyin.

Among them...

Some had previously only watched Short Videos on Douyin and were drawn into a livestream room for the first time by a PK.

Some had never even used Douyin before, but after seeing PK clips on Bilibili and Weibo, they downloaded the app specifically to join the fun.

So, during these few days...

Douyin's download curve began to rise from the night the PK feature launched and maintained a stable high for several consecutive days.

Furthermore...

The number of daily active streamers on Douyin also began to rebound at a visible rate.

From a low of less than two thousand, it broke five thousand on the first night of the PK launch, surpassed twenty thousand by the third day, and exceeded fifty thousand by the fifth day.

This number had already surpassed the combined total of active streamers on both Douyu and Huya.

More importantly...

A significant portion of these new streamers were professional streamers previously signed with Douyu and Huya.

Some quietly started streaming on Douyin after their contracts expired, looking embarrassed when recognized by fans.

Some even started streaming secretly to test the waters before their contracts were up; the breach of contract penalties no longer seemed so threatening in the face of the high revenue brought by Douyin PKs.

Douyin's Daily Active Users (DAU) were also climbing simultaneously.

When Douyin first launched its livestreaming feature, its DAU hovered around ten million.

With the subsequent month and a half of promotion and the half-month period where PKs went viral...

By the eighth month of Douyin's existence, its DAU officially broke twenty million!

...

Inspur Technology.

Zhao Lei pushed open the door to Qin Mo's office, holding a printed data report, his entire face radiating an uncontainable excitement.

"Boss, twenty million DAU."

"In the half-month since the livestream PK feature launched, the total revenue from the livestreaming side alone has surpassed fifty million!"

As he spoke, he spread the report in front of Qin Mo, his finger pointing at several rows of data highlighted in red.

"Aside from that initial match between Lin Wanwan and Meizi, there have been over a dozen PKs that broke one million in revenue, and three that broke five million."

"There are countless ones in the hundreds of thousands; they're too many to count."

"The operations team did a tally. Since the PK feature launched, the user payment rate is in a completely different world compared to before."

"Out of this fifty million, after deducting the streamers' cuts and the profit sharing for the Douyin guilds we've signed, about one-third is net profit."

"Fifteen million in pure income, and that's not even counting the advertising premiums brought by this surge in popularity."

Qin Mo leaned back in his chair, holding a cup of tea. His expression didn't change much after hearing this long report.

He simply nodded.

"It's within my expectations."

"However..."

Qin Mo paused.

"These figures are impressive, but they will drop later."

Zhao Lei was stunned for a moment.

"When the PK feature first launched, many people were experiencing this format for the first time, so it's easy for them to get caught up in the heat of the moment."

"If you ask Si Cong to go back and spend now, he likely wouldn't give away millions of yuan in gifts so easily."

"Ordinary people also find it novel to spend a few yuan on PK votes for the first time. Once the novelty wears off, they won't pay for every single match."

"This is normal user behavior; it doesn't mean the product is failing."

Zhao Lei thought about it and nodded.

But Qin Mo's voice continued to ring out.

"However, these Douyin streamers will still put effort into PKs. If both sides have a massive fan base combined with conflict between them, we'll still see sessions breaking ten million, just not as frequently."

"And besides, regardless of whether the numbers drop, Douyin Livestream has already established a firm foothold."

"Over at Douyu and Huya, they looked down on PKs before, but now they'll definitely want to copy us."

"Based on the time it took us to develop this feature, if they're fast, they should be able to launch it within a few days."

"But we're already ahead. The streamer community is green with envy over Douyin's PK revenue. Several signed streamers from Douyu and Huya have already secretly jumped over to our side."

Images from his past life flashed through Qin Mo's mind.

Those top-tier streamers who once dominated Douyu and Huya had jumped over one by one after Douyin took off.

Some were drawn by higher signing bonuses, some by the larger traffic pool, and some because they were being replaced by newcomers on their old platforms.

In this world, this trend would only be faster than in his past life.

Ultimately...

All the top streamers will come to Douyin. It is the inevitable trend.

"I understand."

Zhao Lei nodded, but then he suddenly thought of something.

"But Douyin's potential should probably end here, right?"

Zhao Lei's tone became a bit more pragmatic.

"After the PK launch, Douyin's growth curve is indeed beautiful, but this should be the last of its potential."

"The 'Short Video + livestreaming' model has basically reached its limit. To keep our user growth moving upward, the rest will just be a slow grind."

"Douyin should be entering a period of stable development now."

According to normal logic, Zhao Lei's thinking wasn't wrong.

It wouldn't be right for a project to continuously launch features that set the entire internet on fire one after another.

However...

With Qin Mo...

This was just the norm.

Qin Mo set down his teacup and looked at Zhao Lei, the corners of his mouth curling upward.

"This is only the beginning."

"How is the Douyin Mall I asked you to work on earlier coming along?"