What's wrong with me being a rich man?

Chapter 527 Advancement
With the Spring Festival approaching, Xu Xin, who had already started her holiday earlier this year, became somewhat restless.

"That's not quite right. I don't think Yu Xing would suddenly bring up something like this."

"This isn't quite right."

Xu Xin is still thinking about Lingang's efforts to build a presence in the e-commerce market.

"You mean, he's trying to scam you?" Li Song tried to understand his wife's thoughts.

Xu Xin shook her head.

"Let's wait and see, and talk about it after the New Year," Li Song said with a smile. "There's no rush for this kind of thing. This year, let's focus on Douyin first, then Kyushu. If these two things can be implemented smoothly, then we'll see about President Yu's so-called new direction in e-commerce."

Capital Today made a substantial paper profit on JD.com last year when it went public, and it plans to hold the stock for the long term.

Therefore, Xu Xin was in a very good mood and had already made plans for the whole family to fly to the Maldives for the Chinese New Year.

Hearing her husband say this, although she was still emotionally turbulent, she felt that it was indeed worthwhile to wait and observe the two most important things happening in Lingang, and then see what would happen.

Douyin began pushing out a lot of themed content in December last year. Handsome men and beautiful women are indeed very effective in spreading the word, and the supplementary content on travel, music and other aspects makes Douyin the most content-rich product among similar products.

This month, starting from New Year's Day, Douyin has been promoting content centered around the theme of "Spring Festival".

Xu Xin closely followed the popular videos on Douyin, and unexpectedly, one of them really caught her eye.

Although Douyin pushes a very small percentage of videos with 1-minute permissions, all the videos on the trending list this month are 15 seconds long, which is obviously for the sake of dissemination. Among them are videos with the theme of parents' smiles, videos with the theme of different local customs, and videos with the theme of work positions.

Xu Xin came across a video of colleagues chatting about going home for the Chinese New Year, their faces beaming with smiles.

She couldn't help but sigh: "When I heard Mr. Yu talk about how Douyin wanted to put content creation in the hands of a wide range of users, rather than in the hands of celebrities like Miaopai, Leyin, and Weishi, I was somewhat skeptical at the time. But now, seeing the different themes they create, it's clear that everyone has to work together to create content, which is why so many things that resonate with people have emerged."

When Li Song heard his wife say that, he peeked at the short video on her phone screen and pursed his lips: "Look at the camera work, it's obviously professional. Carbon Silicon must have hired someone to film it."

Xu Xin was taken aback. Huh?
After thinking about it, she simply sent a message to Lü Haiying to inquire about the arrangements.

And it turned out to be true.

Douyin is a mixed bag; the vast majority of content is created spontaneously by users, while a small portion is filmed by professionals. They even turn the positive feedback into video templates and then use these templates to push more content.

According to Lü Haiying, they originally wanted to invite well-known directors in the industry, but later found that those veteran directors were not serious at all. So they immediately switched to looking for young people who were directors or filmmakers in colleges and universities. In the end, they found that the younger directors were able to empathize with the young people.

“Haha, that’s right, Douyin will definitely work if it does this. It’s good that it can empathize.” Li Song saw Lü Haiying’s reply. “I think Douyin’s viral growth numbers this year will be terrifying. Weishi managed to get 4500 million daily active users last Spring Festival with a strong push. Tsk, Douyin will have to achieve at least half of that this year.”

Everyone now knows that Weishi's daily active users last year were greatly inflated, but Li Song knows that Douyin's figures are not inflated.

Seeing his wife deep in thought, he added, "I saw a report from the China Academy of Industrial and Information Technology this morning. It said that 4500 million mobile phones were sold in the domestic market last month, with 4G phones accounting for 3200 million of them. This growth is terrifying! It's going to break 3500 million units this month, even before the Chinese New Year!"

In January 2014, 4G mobile phone shipments reached 405 million units, accounting for 10% of total smartphone shipments that month. By December of the end of the year, this proportion had risen to 70%. Such rapid and explosive growth indicates the continued expansion of the mobile internet market.

Xu Xin nodded slightly: "Speaking of this 4G phone, the monthly sales volume is truly incomparable to what it was when we were making WeChat."

With 4G licenses officially issued and a wide variety of 4G mobile phone models already available, coupled with prices dropping to several hundred yuan, consumers naturally opted for 4G, adhering to the mentality of buying new rather than old.

“You really can’t stop talking about Lingang.” Li Song shook his head. “Outsiders see things more clearly. Let’s relax during the Spring Festival and then see. This won’t be a big deal.”

Xu Xin didn't mean to talk about Lingang, but rather that both of Lingang's carbon and silicon technologies are crucial, and that these two technologies have a far-reaching influence on their respective industries.

She tried to focus only on the specific content on Douyin, but then she saw information about BYD's new car launch event on January 13th.

BYD has officially launched the "Tang" to the market, priced at 30 yuan, which can be described as a groundbreaking attempt.

Xu Xin considered the market factors of the Silicon Carbon Group and felt that if the national and local subsidies were removed, and license plate incentives were added, it might actually sell well in the Shanghai market.

On January 16, short video content for the Spring Festival on Douyin spread like wildfire. The 15-second short video format has one advantage: it is not only easy to spread online, but also allows traditional offline screens like Focus Media to fully display the content of a video.

Carbon Silicon Data has been cooperating with Focus Media, and this time they are once again leveraging it and similar forms of offline advertising to ensure that the advertising reaches the target audience in one go.

According to Xu Xin's understanding, Douyin spent more than 1 billion yuan on offline advertising in January alone, taking a promotional path that doesn't seem so "internet-oriented".

That evening, with two days left before her overseas vacation, Xu Xin warmly invited Liu Wanying of Red Falcon Capital to play mahjong together.

Xu Xin is very good at playing mahjong and loves it. In the third quarter of last year, she had nothing to do and played a few games with Liu Wanying. She felt that it was a very good informal communication scenario.

Red Falcon Capital has also closed for the holidays. Liu Wanying has seen Yu Xing still extremely busy these past few days, so she is happy to come and chat with President Xu to build a relationship.

Xu Xin deliberately circled the screen twice, then casually mentioned Yu Xing.

She started by talking about how Baixiaosheng "shorted" BYD, recalling their friendship when she first joined Baixiaosheng in this stubborn style, and then mentioned Yu Xing's obstinate desire to create an e-commerce project to challenge Alibaba.

“Challenging Alibaba was more of a joke; the main thing is that he genuinely believes there’s potential in the lower-tier market,” Liu Wanying said with a laugh while cracking sunflower seeds. “To be honest, I also think it’s debatable.”

Hearing Liu Wanying say this, Xu Xin nodded: "Yes, we need to discuss it. This market is not as easy as President Yu thinks. After the New Year, I will have a good talk with him and see if we can bring Liu Chiping along so that we can all sit down and talk together."

She spent the past two weeks thinking about the lower-tier market and finally realized that there were indeed some opportunities.

Liu Wanying hummed in agreement: "Yes, we still need to talk to Liu Chiping and the others. Yu Xing invited Liu Chiping, but I feel..."

"Wait, President Yu invited Liu Chiping?" Xu Xin stopped playing cards and asked in surprise, "Did Liu Chiping agree? When will he come?"

Liu Wanying paused for a moment, hesitated for three seconds, and then said, "Liu Chiping has already gone back."

Xu Xin was startled and asked in surprise, "You've been here before?"

Liu Wanying nodded, confirming this.

Xu Xin was surprised that the other party not only agreed, but had even met and talked with her.

She was slightly annoyed: "Why didn't President Yu invite me to participate in this kind of thing?"

Liu Wanying already knew what was going on. After a moment's thought, she smiled and said, "President Xu, if you don't think it'll work out, why did I call you?" Xu Xin remained silent, but her silence clearly carried dissatisfaction.

“Oh, Mr. Xu, this is what Yu Xing said himself. He said that Capital Today has already helped Lingang a lot. Since Mr. Xu is not optimistic, he doesn’t want to cause trouble or force things.” Liu Wanying put it nicely. “I asked him how the talks went, and he said it was just so-so, let’s wait and see.”

Xu Xin drew a "East Wind" card, hesitated to play it, but eventually placed it on the table.

Liu Wanying pushed the tiles aside and laughed, "I'm just missing the east wind, I've won!"

Xu Xin looked at Liu Wanying's smiling face with some helplessness and felt that she couldn't wait any longer.

She felt that President Yu was more enthusiastic about building an e-commerce business than she had imagined, and that he had a lot of resources at his disposal. Since she had doubts, she decided to clarify them first.

Soon after, Xu Xin informed her husband that she was not going to the Maldives.

"What's gotten into you now?" Li Song said angrily. "We had agreed on everything, but you changed your mind at the last minute. You're always talking about this project or that project. Why don't you go and see your project for yourself!"

Xu Xin nodded in confirmation, "It is indeed necessary to work with the project. President Yu talked about the lower-tier market, and Alibaba talked about Rural Taobao. I suddenly realized that I have only listened to them talking. What exactly is this so-called lower-tier market? I really need to see it for myself. President Yu's suggestion is correct."

Li Song shrugged, knowing that his wife had encountered another problem that she wouldn't give up until she figured it out.

He looked up at the sky and sighed, "You're always like this, always like this..."

Xu Xin also felt quite apologetic this time, and took her husband's hand: "Thank you for understanding me. If I didn't understand, I wouldn't have had a good time or eat well abroad."

Li Song knew what kind of person his wife was, so he had no choice but to agree.

Xu Xin made a plan to work overtime during the Spring Festival, intending to go deep into the rural areas of central China to see firsthand the living environment and shopping needs of the people, and then compare the advantages and disadvantages of Alibaba and Lingang's two approaches to penetrating the lower-tier market.

However, before leaving, she went to see Yu Xing, who had already had a private meeting with Liu Chiping, to inquire about the results of their meeting.

"Did you two start arguing or fighting when you met?" Xu Xin wondered.

“It was very calm. I invited him to meet and talk, and he flew over two days later.” Yu Xing said thoughtfully, “It was easier than I expected. I thought he might be as stubborn as you, but he showed a lot of interest.”

Xu Xin asked curiously, "Have you reached any agreement on a cooperation method?"

"Actually, it's not that Silicon Carbon wants to cooperate with Tencent, but rather that it can act as an investor in new projects. We will mainly invest in technical support, and Tencent will mainly invest in helping with WeChat. We don't need to exchange any benefits; we're just seeing if we can launch a new company that can make a splash in the lower-tier market," Yu Xing said. "This won't affect our respective traffic and strength for a certain period of time, but it might cause a new impact on the e-commerce market. What's there to be unable to discuss?"

With its silicon carbon algorithm, Tencent's WeChat messaging platform, and multi-source traffic, if Pinduoduo, backed by these resources, can pull it off, it will only create waves in the e-commerce sector.

It was based on this thinking that Liu Chiping went to Lingang to meet and communicate with competitors.

Xu Xin nodded silently.

Needless to say, Mr. Yu has always had his own set of methods and observations, and Mr. Liu is also a very capable person. The fact that he is willing to cooperate at a time when the two sides are in fierce competition means that there is likely a good market.

Xu Xin was utterly perplexed when she thought of this.

These two individuals, one who had never done e-commerce business and the other who had never succeeded in doing e-commerce business, were able to reach a consensus on this direction.

How could someone as skilled at investing in e-commerce as myself not see that?
She didn't know who to suspect, so she could only see it for herself.

Before leaving, Xu Xin asked one last question: "Didn't you two talk about the competition between Douyin and Weishi? You two even met to discuss cooperation."

Yu Xing laughed.

He said, "Of course we talked. Chiping is pretty much the same as you, he also asked me when he was about to leave."

Xu Xin focused intently, wanting to hear this exchange that was almost impossible to circulate.

"He asked me, 'Don't you want to talk about the ban on Douyin by WeChat?'" Yu Xing laughed. "I replied, 'There's no need to talk about it. It's impossible to unblock it, and it doesn't matter. Even without WeChat, Douyin will still beat Weishi.'"

Xu Xin couldn't help but ask, "And then?"

Yu Xing shook his head: "That was it. He didn't argue and left calmly."

Xu Xin savored the scene described by President Yu.

Is being calm a sign of confidence or a lack of confidence?

She commented, "It's a bit strange."

Yu Xing thought so too. In fact, through this unusual meeting, he felt that the internal situation at Tencent might be even more turbulent than he had imagined.

in case……

He made a bold assumption: if Liu Chiping really couldn't continue working at Tencent, MusVid overseas was already considering suitable host options.

He didn't discuss this with Xu Xin, and even he himself felt it was somewhat far-fetched.

Xu Xin has left Lingang.

She traveled to Henan Province with questions and thoughts in mind, planning to spend the Spring Festival there, and then go to Anhui Province to find similar villages after the holiday.

From Shanghai to the countryside, from flying around to working on the muddy ground, what I saw and heard was completely different and something I could never have imagined before.

However, there was one thing that Xu Xin had observed and discussed in Shanghai, and which she ultimately verified in front of herself.

During this year's Spring Festival, she witnessed two things happening: buying a 4G phone and watching Douyin videos.

Smartphones have penetrated even deeper into rural areas than Xu Xin imagined, allowing the reach of mobile internet to take root in lower-tier markets. Even Douyin, which was launched just last year, has spread along with the impact of infrastructure development.

This month, Douyin has an internal goal for offline promotion: to have Douyin everywhere there is a screen.

Xu Xin made a special observation during this Spring Festival and found that Douyin entered the countryside along with people returning home and spread at an astonishing speed. Soon, Douyin was almost everywhere with Wi-Fi and 4G.

(End of this chapter)