You call this entrepreneurship?

Chapter 492: The Money-burning Showdown of Social Platforms

Weibo’s “Creation Incentive Plan” caused an immediate sensation as soon as it was launched.

Netizens were more excited than each other. As long as they posted on Weibo, they might get money. The last time such a good thing happened was during the Chinese New Year.

Weibo launched an event called "Watch the Spring Festival Gala, go to Weibo, and win big prizes!" Weibo claimed that it had prepared a prize of 100 million yuan.

Many joke makers and users watched the Spring Festival Gala while posting on Weibo on their mobile phones and computers, and quite a few people did receive money.

At that time, Weibo had just been online for a month, and the number of users could not be compared with now. Most users regretted not having caught up with the benefits, but now they have finally caught up.

The "creative incentive plan" is not a new thing. QVOD also did it when it was competing with other video websites for users.

However, the threshold for jobs like video shooting and editing is high, and only tens of thousands of people can join the program. It is a gimmick in itself, and the bonuses for creative incentives are mostly divided up among the top creators.

Weibo is different. Its main feature is a “short and concise” message, with only 140 characters in total. Anyone who can type can post it.

If I can’t shoot a video, can I post on Weibo?
As long as you post on Weibo, you will have the chance to receive money, so what are you waiting for?

Although the probability of a Weibo post going viral is low, as long as I post more, won’t the probability go up?
With the mentality of going to the supermarket to grab discounted eggs, a large number of Weibo users excitedly plunged into the plan of "posting on Weibo" to get the free gifts.

On the day the event started, Weibo generated 80 million blog posts in one day, almost causing the server to crash again.

……

Wang Wei, the person in charge of Sina's "Blog Journal", was a little depressed. He had finally defeated his opponent, but the opponent came up with a "creative incentive plan" and stole the limelight again.

Although "Bo Ji"'s data has been steadily rising, the opponent's data seems to be more impressive.

What made him even more unbearable was that bloggers reported to him that all the top bloggers at Sina had opened accounts on Weibo. Their blogs and notes had not been updated in the past two days, and they were all posting jokes on Weibo.

"How ridiculous!" Wang Wei was very angry. "Didn't they agree not to go on Weibo? Why did they go back on their word?! Do they still have any credibility?"

He knew in his heart that these days all promises made verbally were false, and there were many cases of people refusing to pay even after signing a contract.

People start blogs not only to become famous but also to make money. Now that Weibo has no shortage of traffic and people are willing to spend money generously, why would they bother writing blogs here?

Wouldn’t it be better to just post on Weibo?
Many famous bloggers have tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of fans, and taking away just a portion of them is enough to make a big splash on Weibo.

When others write a joke, it may only get a few reposts, but when they post one, it will get at least thousands or even tens of thousands of reposts, and they just wait to get paid.

For them, posting on Weibo is equivalent to getting paid. Who can resist this temptation?

Wang Wei was very angry, "How many people have opened accounts on Weibo?"

"About half of them," said the director in charge of maintaining the blog, "but there are still many people who don't have Weibo accounts, so the situation is not that bad."

"You know shit!" Wang Wei slammed the table angrily.

Those who didn't leave either had enough money and didn't want to join in the fun, or they were still being reserved and caring about their reputation, but in fact they were already shaken in their hearts.

Those who stayed behind are either cultural celebrities or entertainment stars; those in finance, authors, internet celebrities, etc. have all left.

Wang Wei knew very well that if this continued, more people would run away.

"Now have someone contact those bloggers immediately and tell them that it's okay to open an account on Weibo, but you can't favor one over the other. You should also open an account on Blog and update simultaneously."

Since it cannot be stopped, it is also good to divert some of the traffic.

"This... may be a bit difficult." The director of the blog was sweating. "We have signed a contract with Weibo. We can only post on Weibo, not on both. If we do that, we won't get the creative bonus."

“Money, money, money!” Wang Wei was completely furious and shouted hysterically, “Do these idiots only know how to use money? Our blog gave them so much traffic and exposure, and now they’re turning their backs on us!”

Wang Wei also knew that this was nothing but impotent rage, and being angry would not change anything.

The blog has signed contracts with some bloggers before, but these contracts were not very binding, especially there were no exclusive agreements.

Even if there is an exclusive agreement, it is useless because their contract only covers the blog category and does not include new social platforms such as Weibo.

"Boss Wang!" A blogger's product manager rushed over, "A foreign influencer has appeared on Weibo, posting swimsuit photos to say hello."

Wang Wei suddenly became nervous and immediately asked, "Have you seen clearly which internet celebrities they are? Are there any internet celebrities we have signed?"

"No, they are just a few small models from Facebook. We didn't find any internet celebrities who have signed contracts with us opening accounts." The product manager added, "Don't worry, Mr. Wang. Those internet celebrities who have signed contracts will not change jobs. Americans have a sense of contract."

"Bullshit about the spirit of contract!" Wang Wei glared at the product manager as if he were an idiot, and resisted the urge to curse.

Yilin’s chicken soup can only fool ordinary people, but a veteran like him doesn’t believe it at all.

In the face of money, the spirit of contract is worthless.

The United States advocates a free market. Doesn’t a free market mean “you can breach the contract as long as you can make money”?

Isn't it funny to shout about the free market and the spirit of contract at the same time?

These internet celebrities were recruited by him with money. If they cannot make money from BoJie, they may run away to Weibo at any time.

As for the contract...

Sina can't go to the United States to sue these Internet celebrities. It's hard to say whether it can win. Once the news is exposed and the stock price fluctuates, it will be enough to make it suffer.

After much deliberation, Wang Wei reluctantly found CEO Cao Guowei.

"Boss Cao, Weibo has invested a lot of money this time, paying those users." Wang Wei was heartbroken when he mentioned it. "Some accounts can earn thousands or even tens of thousands of yuan a day."

It's a sin to give away your money to the poor!
"Why are you panicking?" Cao Guowei had seen a lot of storms and waves, so he remained calm. "Keep your ground steady, don't panic."

"If you mess up, how can the people below work?"

Wang Wei immediately calmed down and said ashamedly: "Boss Cao was right. I lost my mind."

"How do you plan to respond now?" Cao Guowei asked directly.

"My current plan is to stabilize the bloggers we have and sign contracts with them as soon as possible. They must have exclusive agreements and we cannot let them go to Weibo again." Wang Wei quickly gave the first plan, "It will be too late if we don't remedy the situation now."

"It's a good idea, but relying on contracts alone is useless," Cao Guowei warned. "Some people have a rebellious mentality. Those who had no intention of leaving were forced to leave, and those who were not firm in their stance would just run away."

"If you want to tie them up, you have to let them see the benefits first. Otherwise, who would be willing to sign an exclusive contract with you?"

Of course Wang Wei understood this truth, but he was reluctant to say it because this kind of thing would cost money, a lot of money at that.

He couldn't make this decision at his level, and he didn't dare to ask for money directly.

In order to promote "Bo Ji" and poach foreign Internet celebrities, Sina spent money like water.

If Wang Wei dared to raise the budget again, it would be hard to say whether the board would agree, and it might even affect their evaluation of him. Originally, his promotion and salary increase were almost certain, and he was just waiting for the "Bo Ji" incident to enter a stable stage, and then he would let someone else take over after he was promoted.

It seems a bit difficult now. Weibo's reaction was quite intense. It directly threw money at Sina and forced it to follow suit.

Cao Guowei was very clear about the current situation. He was no ordinary person to be the CEO. He said directly: "Go and tell those bloggers who have not left yet that as long as they come to blog, we will provide subsidies every day."

"Subsidy?" Wang Wei pretended to be surprised. "This will cost a lot of money, right?"

"Don't worry about money, just do your own thing." Cao Guowei said seriously, "If Weibo messes up the money, we have to do it too. Otherwise, the top bloggers will be snatched away, and the remaining group of ordinary users will lose the vitality of the social platform."

"First, use money to retain these people, so that they will also actively post blogs and call on their fans to collect data."

"I understand, Mr. Cao." Wang Wei nodded immediately, "I'll arrange for someone to talk to these people right away."

"Also, find someone to keep an eye on Weibo and try to recruit some people who can create jokes." Cao Guowei added, "At the very least, we need to get them to open two accounts on our blog."

As long as "Bo Ji" also provides subsidies for creative works, a large number of people will definitely come. Although it is impossible to poach people directly, it is also good to let them have the best of both worlds.

Wang Wei had an idea at this time, "We can also have people directly copy popular jokes from Weibo, which will not only boost data, but also support a group of Internet celebrity accounts."

Cao Guowei waved his hand and said, "You decide for yourself."

Without saying either yes or no, Wang Wei naturally understood Mr. Cao's intention.

No objection means consent. He will say what the leader is not convenient to say, and he will do what the leader is not convenient to do.

After sending Wang Wei away, Cao Guowei went straight to find Wang Yan. Weibo had played a trump card, and bloggers had to follow up, otherwise they would not be able to defeat the opponent.

But if he wants to follow, he needs to have bargaining chips. As the CEO, he cannot make the decision, so Wang Yan has to do it.

……

Faced with the powerful offensive of Weibo's "Creation Incentive Plan", Sina finally took action after a few days of silence.

BlogJournal officially launched the "Quality Blog Post Rewards", announcing that as long as the blog posts published meet certain standards, cash subsidies can be received.

According to the reward standards announced by Sina, it seems similar to Weibo, but the data required by Sina bloggers is slightly lower than that of Weibo.

As a result, many users, with the mentality of "it's the same if you drive one sheep, and it's the same if you let two sheep go", started to play both sides and prepare to fleece the sheep from both sides.

Immediately after "Bo Ji" announced the reward plan, a large number of accounts followed suit, including many famous joke tellers on Weibo.

Sina's "Bo Ji" is shaking again.

Wang Wei also breathed a sigh of relief. Now the situation has returned to balance, and what remains is a competition of internal strength between the two sides.

Stimulated by money, users began to squeeze out all the ink in their stomachs and desperately output blog content. Joke makers posted jokes one after another, and sometimes they couldn't hold back and even posted tongue twisters.

Of course, a person's wisdom is always limited.

Soon a smart person came up with an idea and said, "I can't think of it by myself, so what if I find a group of people to help me think of it?"

A group of people operate an account, and everyone gets points for the money they earn.

Thus, the first marketing account studio was born in a dormitory at the university. Several students in the dormitory used a collection of jokes as a reference and kept compiling various jokes and stories.

The effect was immediate, their account data got better and better, and in a week they received more than 3,000 yuan in rewards.

After receiving the bonus from Weibo, several college students had a big feast and then made up their minds to keep working hard.

Soon, students from the same school followed suit and also gathered a few classmates to create accounts and post jokes.

This became the prototype of MCN, and several small studios soon achieved considerable results.

After continuous high-intensity output, Weibo quickly noticed the abnormality of this account and someone followed up immediately.

After finding out that it was a small workshop run by a few college students, professionals made suggestions and helped them to regularize their operations.

For example, registering a company, determining account ownership and shares, maintaining accounts in a planned manner, and how to communicate with advertisers in the future.

Many college students rejected the suggestion of using Weibo. They just wanted to use it as a side job and had no real intentions to work in this field. They basically just muddled through.

However, there were still some people with quick minds who listened to the advice on Weibo and started their own business as college students. They registered a cultural and creative company and at the same time incorporated other teams from the same school.

In this way, in the Weibo war, some people rely on their own fame to make money, some stand out with their own talents, and some thrive with collective wisdom.

This Weibo war quickly entered a white-hot stage, and those who were smart enough to roam around the two platforms and take advantage of the situation have made a lot of money.

Of course, where there is originality there is plagiarism.

Many accounts simply don’t create anything, but instead focus on copying and pasting a batch of accounts on Weibo to “Bo Ji”, and then go to Sina “Bo Ji” to copy and paste to Weibo.

This type of account is designed to make quick money, so naturally they won't pay attention to content quality control.

So we often see jokes on Weibo being copied to "Bo Ji" and then being copied back to Weibo because they are so popular.

Domestic sales are converted into exports and then converted into domestic sales.

Weibo will naturally crack down severely on such behavior, and will not show leniency in banning accounts if plagiarism is discovered.

"Bo Ji" had an ambiguous attitude towards this and basically turned a blind eye, so various plagiarizing accounts on "Bo Ji" became more and more rampant.

It’s strange to say, some accounts on Blog have little popularity for their original works, but the popularity of plagiarized accounts is very high, with all kinds of comments and reposts being ridiculously high.

Seeing all kinds of accounts making money by plagiarizing, original bloggers are naturally furious. They complain for a long time but in vain. Many people simply go to Weibo and never update their "blog diary" again.

After all, Weibo really protects originality, so it can safeguard its own interests.

"Bo Ji" doesn't care about this at all. As long as those plagiarizing accounts can continue to be popular, others can leave if they want to.

The two sides fought hard and money was spent like water.

A month later, he posted his battle report on Weibo, and a total of 60 million yuan was given out in the reward plan.

"Bo Ji" was not to be outdone and announced that it had subsidized 40 million yuan.

The two sides barely managed a draw, while other microblogging platforms remained silent.

Two big brothers are fighting and using AOE on each other, what can they do?
They are desperate too.

I just hope these two big brothers can shake hands and make peace and stop burning money. They spend tens of millions in a month. Is this how human beings play?
But Weibo clearly did not intend to give up, and issued another announcement, "The reward plan has been increased again!"

(End of this chapter)