"What face do you need to have to play on the internet! Did those people who flame you online ever think about having face? Did Pig Factory ever care about face when they played marketing?"
Tan Jincheng's response left Cheng Hao and Liu Yifei speechless.
In these years, people hadn't really played with this kind of viral marketing tactic yet, or rather, those who did were tacitly aware, as it wasn't exactly glorious, and the outside world didn't know much about it.
What's more, at most, what I'm doing can only be considered sending some spam messages to users.
A few years later, during the 3Q War, you'll know how outrageous it was; that was user kidnapping.
By the way, 360 was only established last September, and its free antivirus software hasn't been launched yet.
"Alright, just modify it as I said. Director Cheng, contact MSN to finalize the cooperation. There's no need to contact QQ for now."
The initial promotion must rely on Cheng Hao's connections in the internet circle.
He was also a product manager, and although he didn't do a great job, he did accumulate many connections, which was one of the reasons Tan Jincheng recruited him.
Cheng Hao also understood this principle well.
The success of Kaixin.com had little to do with underlying technology; it depended on whether this viral marketing campaign would be effective.
In 2006, regarding SNS, or social networking sites, on the software side, QQ and MSN occupied the main market share, and other software like Skype also held a certain share.
As for websites, it was even more mixed, with QQ Zone, Xiaonei.com, Mop.com, Tianya Club, Douban, Baidu Tieba, and other sites.
The hottest website was still QQ Zone.
Relying on its massive QQ user base, QQ's activity was very good.
Baidu Tieba at this time could only be considered a junior, ranking at the very end among the top 10 websites.
It seemed like a battle among many heroes, but in reality, QQ's dominant position had already emerged.
QQ was the software with the largest market share at the time, and while it received investment, it also saw the addition of someone who would change Tencent's destiny.
Today's QQ is no longer what it once was.
On the previous trading day, its closing price had risen to 16.30 Hong Kong dollars.
The market value of the 600,000 shares of Tencent stock invested by Tan Jincheng was already close to 10 million Hong Kong dollars.
The investment was only 3.308 million Hong Kong dollars, and the profit was already nearly three times that.
"Okay, I'll go arrange it now. For website upgrades, I'll have the technical team work overtime through the night to get it done. All the issues Mr. Tan mentioned are easy to solve, except for integrating game currency. As for MSN, I'll go talk to them myself."
"Mhm, good. Only success is allowed, no failure. No matter what method you use, you must secure the cooperation with MSN."
Immediately after, Tan Jincheng smiled again:
"Also, if you secure the cooperation with MSN, Director Cheng can exercise his stock options early."
With pressure, there must be some motivation.
Currently, Cheng Hao is still very important to Orange Technology, equivalent to Tan Jincheng's entry ticket into the internet.
Only through Cheng Hao can Tan Jincheng truly access the internet industry.
Cheng Hao smiled from the bottom of his heart.
With the first batch of stock options exercised, he could personally receive 1.5% of the shares.
It might not seem like much, but it was actually a lot.
The Kaixin.com project was his, and Cheng Hao, of course, knew its prospects after launch.
Boss Tan was indeed as generous to his employees as rumored.
Although Orange Technology is independent of Flash Motors Group, Cheng Hao wasn't completely oblivious to current affairs during his days in Beicang.
He had interacted with Flash Motors' internal employees, visited factories, and browsed the local internet.
Flash Motors' reputation wasn't just among its internal employees, but was excellent throughout Beicang.
Giving tasks and also giving good compensation, such investors and bosses are worthy of praise.
"Qingqing, have the finance department prepare to issue bonuses to the two project teams."
When the leaders eat meat, those below should also get to drink soup.
Let everyone see the results of working overtime through the night, so they'll be more willing to work overtime in the future.
As the only outsider present, although Liu Yifei didn't particularly understand the content Tan Jincheng and the others were discussing, being in the complex environment of the entertainment industry, her ability to read people was stronger than anyone else present.
Cheng Hao, who was a hundred times superior to Tan Jincheng in both age and technical skills, was extremely convinced by Tan Jincheng.
This was quite intriguing.
Young in age, skilled in managing subordinates, and generous with spending, no wonder his career could grow so large.
After Cheng Hao left, Tan Jincheng played "stealing vegetables" for a while.
He had too few friends, and besides Cheng Hao and Gu Yanning, Qingqing and Liu Yifei had just opened their farms, so it wasn't very exciting to play.
However, the overall feel of the game was still similar to what he remembered, and that was enough.
Such mini-games don't have high requirements; the simpler the gameplay, the better.
He remembered a mini-game called "Sheep a Sheep" before he was reborn, which was extremely simple, but it became a hit across the entire internet because it grasped human psychology.
"Not bad, you 'noobs'. To have made the game to this extent is already very good. On the flip side, pay attention to some more optimizations, and after launch, be sure to collect user experience feedback."
Gu Yanning smiled:
"Director Cheng and the Kaixin.com project team guided us a lot; otherwise, we wouldn't have achieved this effect."
Indeed, as Tan Jincheng said, they were all 'noobs'.
They started working and immediately took on projects independently, so they genuinely lacked confidence.
Only Tan Jincheng was bold enough to employ them.
"The Happy Farm project team will also receive bonuses. You can decide on the specific amounts; I won't bother with it."
Gu Qingqing smiled:
"Alright, I'll arrange it with finance shortly. Tomorrow is Monday, so it can be directly transferred. But when will Kaixin.com be launched?"
"No need to overthink the dates. Once the small bugs are fixed, it can be directly launched. Let Cheng Hao handle his contacts, and you do what you need to do here."
Besides Cheng Hao going to discuss cooperation with MSN, Kaixin.com also arranged some other promotional activities.
Orange Technology had money in its accounts.
Advertising investment and sponsorships for some internet-related events were all prepared.
The effect might not be as great as viral marketing, but it could still accumulate some users in the early stage.
Additionally, soft article traffic generation by internet trolls on major social platforms was also essential.
These were all considered Kaixin.com's customer acquisition costs.
Gu Qingqing thought for a while and nodded.
She was the CEO of Orange Technology.
This promotion was her first real assumption of duty.
She couldn't rely on Tan Jincheng for everything; some ideas she truly had to grasp herself.
From today until the end of summer vacation, Gu Qingqing would be permanently stationed in Beicang, becoming a true urban white-collar worker.
——
Monday, July 3rd.
At ten o'clock in the morning, outside a Flash Motors direct sales store in the center of Yongcheng, crowds were bustling.
"Why aren't they here yet? Didn't they say the meet-and-greet starts at ten?"
"Soon, right? Didn't the gossip media say they arrived in Yongcheng yesterday?"
"I heard that if you buy an electric vehicle today, you get an autograph. Is that true?"
"It's true, but you only get 'Celestial Sister's' autograph if you buy the Fengchi Feiyi series, 'Brother Chun's' autograph if you buy the Flash Motors series, and Jay Chou's if you buy the Guanneng."
"Heh heh, I'm planning to buy a Guanneng. Not only is this car cool, but I can also get Chairman Chou's autograph."
"Isn't this 'Celestial Sister's' meet-and-greet? And you're buying a Guanneng?"
"Why not? I got to see the person, and then I got Jay Chou's autograph. Win-win."
"You can do that? Learned something new, learned something new."
"Don't celebrate too soon. There are only 200 spots. Look at the line; it's still uncertain if you'll get one."
In Shanghai, the scene outside the event store in Yicheng was similar.
Hu Xiaoyong looked at the long queue outside, unable to help but shiver in the scorching heat.
"Brother-in-law, aren't there too many people? Nothing bad will happen, will it?"
Tan Lixin, though experienced, had never seen such a scene.
There were too many people, and was this 'Little Yellow Hair' really that popular?
Tan Lixin knew that Flash Motors' marketing department had arranged some "stalls" here, fearing insufficient popularity in smaller cities, but it was absolutely impossible for there to be so many people.
Tan Lixin forced himself to stay calm and said:
"Quickly ask the Flash Motors staff if security is properly arranged."
Don't let anything go wrong; that would be a laughing stock.
Tan Jincheng had never witnessed the high level of 'Brother Chun's' live popularity.
Furthermore, most of 'Brother Chun's' fans were "non-mainstream," and the popularity in smaller cities was not lower than in larger cities.
In an era of spiritual scarcity, when young people in small cities heard that a star they liked was coming, and they could see their idol without buying a ticket, it was like Chinese New Year.
Word spread rapidly, and crowds automatically gathered towards Tan Lixin's store.
'Brother Chun's' appearance elicited continuous screams from the crowd.
It was already summer vacation, and those present were mostly young people, some student groups accompanied by parents.
Their spending power was generally average, so it was unknown how many vehicles would be sold, but in terms of popularity, it was even higher than the scene in Yongcheng.
Additionally, Jay Chou's event in Shanghai was even more packed, with security forces arranged by the event organizer and also security forces provided by relevant departments, which barely managed to maintain order at the scene.
Overall, Yongcheng had the lowest popularity.
In that non-mainstream era, many liked Liu Yifei, but there were more fan groups for 'Brother Chun' and Jay Chou.
Furthermore, Jay Chou was going to release a new album two months later, which also attracted many reporters to the scene.
Mobile phones had entered a semi-smart era.
At the three event locations, fans who didn't care about data traffic would periodically upload live photos to the internet.
Additionally, Flash Motors' marketing department, which organized the events, had also created hot posts on major social platforms, live-streaming the events.
This event had already been pre-heated online for a long time, and the level of attention it received far exceeded the event itself.
Live photos transmitted online sparked heated discussions among fans in other cities that were not selected.
"Tell Zhou Ao to send all the collected photos from the various event locations to Orange Technology."
Kaixin.com is currently fixing bugs and hasn't officially launched yet, but this doesn't matter.
With nine cities, they can always catch up.
Opening an account on Kaixin.com in the name of Flash Motors, and periodically sharing news and gossip about spokespersons, interacting with fans, would also be a good way to link online and offline activities.
(End of chapter)