Starting from a Bar to Sign Internet Celebrities

Chapter 626: Chapter 322: King vs. King! First Call

Han Shangyou had been feeling anxious these past few days. The reason was simple: Kuaishou’s new algorithm. They had originally thought they could quickly figure it out and replicate it.

However, after the tech department’s analysis, they determined that while creating an identical algorithm was possible, it would take time. The tech department’s estimate was that it couldn’t be completed in 2019. After all, it had taken the company Kuaishou acquired, AcFun, a very long time to develop it.

The crucial thing was that they had also received news that Kuaishou was already developing a shopping cart feature. They had even purchased data support from a major e-commerce platform. It was likely they could roll out the shopping cart feature within six months.

This would put them one step ahead.

They had originally thought they could use the shopping cart feature to crush Kuaishou, but now a complication had arisen. Their analysis even suggested that Kuaishou’s new algorithm would allow them to withstand the push from Tiao Yin’s shopping cart.

Once Kuaishou rolled out its own shopping cart feature, they would actually be at a disadvantage.

This analysis was definitely not good news.

Therefore, the company had issued a strict directive to the shopping cart division: they had to increase the feature’s revenue as quickly as possible.

If it came down to it, the top leadership and the board of directors had already decided to proceed with a pre-IPO financing round and engage in a cash-burning war with Kuaishou. (Author’s Note: A pre-IPO round is the financing stage before a company goes public. In another world, Tiao Yin raised 2.5 billion USD in this round, which largely led to Kuaishou’s defeat.)

The biggest factor influencing the financing valuation right now was the performance of the shopping cart feature. If they could maximize its profitability before the end of the year, it would be much more beneficial for their valuation.

He got up, freshened up, and prepared to head to the office immediately.

There had been so much to deal with lately. The pressure from the shopping cart’s development was already immense, and now the higher-ups had issued a directive to promote traditional cultural heritage. All departments were expected to respond proactively.

This was especially true for the entertainment sector. Some video platforms were already producing public service announcements about traditional cultural heritage, while novel websites were launching writing contests on the same theme.

As a short-video platform, they were under the most scrutiny and naturally had to respond proactively. They needed to launch related promotional campaigns and feature a few relevant content creators to show that they were taking the directive seriously.

However, the specifics of the campaign still needed to be decided in a company meeting. ’The operations department has probably already prepared a proposal,’ Han Shangyou thought as he was preparing to leave for the office. Suddenly, his assistant’s call came in.

He answered, and his assistant’s anxious voice came through. "President Han, something’s happened! Quick, look at the top story on Kuaishou’s trending news today. Second-Life Star has established a branch guild on Kuaishou!"

"What?" The color drained from Han Shangyou’s face upon hearing the news.

It was unavoidable. This was all because of Chen Jincheng.

Second-Life Star had always been exclusive to Tiao Yin. For them to suddenly establish a branch guild on Kuaishou was clearly not a good sign.

He pulled out his phone without hesitation and checked Kuaishou’s trending news. Sure enough, he found the report:

Not only had Second-Life Star established a branch guild on Kuaishou, but its artists who had moved over, like New Wind, were having incredibly successful livestreams. New Wind had debuted on the platform and instantly become one of Kuaishou’s top streamers.

This immediately made him think of the previous news about Kuaishou’s Hong Tao contacting Chen Jincheng.

Although Tiao Yin had used its resources to placate Chen Jincheng before, it now seemed Kuaishou had never given up on recruiting him.

He rushed to the office and convened a meeting with the relevant senior executives to discuss the matter.

After a long discussion, they finally reached a conclusion.

One of the executives spoke up. "It’s certain that Kuaishou has been sparing no effort to poach Chen Jincheng, which is why he’s shown signs of wavering. However, we can see that he hasn’t been fully persuaded. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have just established a Second-Life Star branch guild on Kuaishou. This is also likely due to Kuaishou needing to offload some of the many streamers they acquired from Black Cat TV."

"That may be true," another executive countered, "but it’s also a fact that Kuaishou is in frequent contact with Chen Jincheng. If he’s willing to establish a branch guild now, who’s to say he won’t take things a step further in the future? The people at Kuaishou will likely see this as a sign of hope and redouble their efforts."

A third executive sighed. "Chen Jincheng’s influence is just too massive right now, especially his ability to drive sales through his videos. Forget breaking his records, the people we’re promoting would be lucky to achieve even a fraction of his numbers."

Han Shangyou grew more and more agitated as he listened. ’Of course I know all this,’ he thought irritably.

So, he could only issue a sharp reminder. "You’ve all heard the whispers. The company is moving forward with a pre-IPO financing round, and the shopping cart’s performance will have a huge impact on our valuation. By extension, it will also affect our future stock option bonuses. So, I don’t want to hear useless chatter. I want to hear concrete suggestions."

His words made the Tiao Yin executives sit up and take notice. After all, their own financial interests were on the line.

An executive immediately spoke up. "President Han, we can consider other matters later. There is one thing we must do now with absolute sincerity, and we must do it better than Kuaishou. After all, a large portion of the Black Cat TV streamers that Second-Life Star acquired haven’t gone to Kuaishou yet."

"Chen Jincheng is presumably planning to place those streamers on Tiao Yin. Therefore, we must give them promotional traffic and resource support. And we have to offer more resources than Kuaishou."

Han Shangyou nodded. "That’s one way to handle it. While it will make Second-Life Star even more powerful, we have to prioritize. Right now, Tiao Yin’s main concern is Kuaishou. As long as we can defeat Kuaishou, then no matter how big Second-Life Star grows, it won’t be difficult to handle them as long as they still rely on our platform for survival."

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