Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 424: The Darkest Day in China’s Technological Development

No matter what kind of controversy Zhang Chao’s novels had caused before, the attitude of Internet companies was ambiguous and vague, and no senior executives actually came forward to say anything.

The main reason is that "roll education" and the like are not very realistic in business. Only "WeChat" and the like can inspire inspiration and creativity, so I don't care much about it.

But "The Man in the Case" is different. It touches on what every company is doing or trying to do - controlling customer needs.

Of course, this kind of thing cannot be said out loud, or at least there should be a nicer way of saying it, such as the "Phoenix Nest System" or something like that.

Xiao Ma Ge’s open letter is equivalent to a statement - we are indeed able to do the things described in Zhang Chao’s novel, but we promise not to do it, or at least not to go as far as in the novel.

This has pushed Penguin and "Tide Culture" to the forefront.

After all, Chaoxi Culture also has an instant messaging software business, and it is doing quite well.

However, Xiao Ma Ge did not directly mention Zhang Chao and his novel in this speech. Although he was somewhat evasive, his tone was gentle and his attitude was sincere, which is indeed his usual style.

Maybe he was afraid of causing excessive backlash from Zhang Chao?

As expected, Zhang Chao remained silent on Xiao Ma Ge’s remarks. Reporters could not find him at all, and the phone call was even more unsuccessful.

Who knows this is just the beginning.

Less than a week after Pony Ma spoke out, a number of Internet company bosses came out and began to express their opinions.

The second person to come forward was naturally the most eloquent Jack Ma. He did not need to spend half a day to write an article like the other family member, but directly accepted the interview with the reporter: "Zhang Chao's novel reminds us that technology cannot become a new 'government office'. We have insisted on 'making it easy to do business in the world' since the first day -

The word "let" here means empowerment, not control. Our recommendation algorithm is like a tour guide by the West Lake. You can choose to follow her or explore on your own."

Jack Ma’s speech is similar to that of Pony Ma, and is more of a propaganda than a confession.

After all, one of them is a social platform and the other is an e-commerce platform, which are still a bit far from the scenes described in Zhang Chao's novel. If you try too hard, it will easily make people misunderstand that Zhang Chao is referring to them, so it is basically just a brief mention.

Both companies are hailed as China's Internet companies with the greatest potential to become world-class enterprises in the next decade, so their speeches are very indicative, especially Pony Ma's speech, which was published in the most influential newspaper.

For many Internet companies, this is tantamount to a charge!
But no one expected that the first person to jump out after the two horses would be the cardinal.

"Our engineers have developed the latest 'anti-tracking' module overnight, which can erase all user traces and prevent the platform from easily obtaining user usage habits.

Do you know how many malicious pop-ups our security guards block every day? 1.2 million times! Some companies really treat users as puppets!

I suggest that Zhang Chao should first check who these "puppet masters" are and then write a few novels to expose their true faces.

Of course, novels alone are not enough - without our security guards, these platforms will only become more rampant in stealing user data and recording user behavior.

I want to thank Zhang Chao - he made people all over the country realize that every computer needs to install security guards to protect against viruses.

It not only prevents viruses that steal user information, but also viruses that steal user thoughts!"

The words were so beautiful that it made people think that Zhang Chao had some kind of cooperative relationship with him.

But no matter what, the trend of downloading and upgrading Security Guard became popular for a while, and the Cardinal became the most dazzling Internet star. He frequently appeared in the media for interviews, and always started by talking about "protecting user privacy" and "opposing monopoly hegemony."

This was something Zhang Chao had not expected...

After most of the well-known Internet companies have spoken out in a short period of time, those who have not spoken out will feel particularly embarrassed.

That is "Qiandu Search".

It immediately attracted everyone's attention and was immediately recommended on the front pages of major forums and Weibo, with netizens discussing it heatedly.

[They started out as an algorithm company. Isn't the 'all-seeing eye' in Zhang Chao's novel a reference to them? They probably don't dare to say anything because they feel guilty, afraid that their dark history of abusing user data will be exposed...]

[The algorithm in Zhang Chao's novel can even tamper with human memory. It used to work when searching for things, but now the first few results are all ads. They are silent because the novel hits a sore spot, right? ]

[HTC G1 has already been integrated with WeChat, but Baidu is still struggling with search engines? The reason for its silence is probably because it has fallen behind! ]

[Zhang Chao wrote that the relationship between Zhou Yingying and Luo Zhi is "the romance of data design", while Qiandu's silence is like a cold-blooded scumbag! How pure it was when it only had a search box, but now it only has the smell of money of "bidding ranking"! ]

There are also people who defend Baidu, such as this one:

[Other companies are eager to express their opinions because they are afraid of backlash from public opinion, but Qiandu is smart to keep silent. Zhang Chao's novel compares Internet giants to "giant monsters". At this time, the lower your profile, the safer it is...]

But it was soon drowned out by posts of criticism and no one paid any attention to it.

"Qiandu Search" was stunned when it went from being a spectator to a spectator. By the time they realized what was happening, even the mainstream media had started to follow suit.

Guangming Daily published a commentary directly in an important position on the social page:

"Qiandu's silence in response to the "man in the box" controversy, acquiescing to the accusation or disdainful of responding?"

[Recently, the Internet ethical controversy caused by writer Zhang Chao's novel "The Man in the Case" has continued to ferment. Giants such as Alibaba and Penguin have successively stated that they will "optimize the transparency of recommendations." However, Qiandu, which started out with algorithm recommendations, has never responded publicly.

Our investigation found that Baidu's Tieba, search, information flow and other businesses are highly similar to the "all-seeing eye" system in the novel, and can recommend various content to users based on their preferences. Its silence was interpreted by the industry as "guilty cold treatment."

"Assholes! They are coming for us! Can't you see that?" In the headquarters of Yanjing Qiandu Company, the usually elegant Robin lost control and couldn't help but smash the Guangming Daily during the high-level meeting.

Everyone else was silent, not daring to speak.

This was the highlight of Robin's life - in the Chinese market, its market share exceeded 67%, surpassing Google's 23%, making it a classic example of a Chinese Internet company beating up an international giant.

In addition, Robin has a very good image and is very elegant, so the public has a better impression of him than the other two horses. Therefore, these subordinates are still very respectful of this boss.

Only Robin himself knows that beneath the prosperous appearance of Qiandu Company, there are actually crises lurking everywhere.

Whether it is Penguin, Alibaba, or even the Cardinal of Security Guard, they are all eyeing the search market.

As soon as they defeat Google, new search engines may catch up with them.

In fact, among instant messaging, online shopping platforms and search engines, search engines have the lowest technical barriers, and their user stickiness is not as good as that of instant messaging.

Now that these companies are coming out one after another to express their opinions, aren’t they trying to squeeze themselves and shake the company’s position in the minds of users?

Robin stared at an executive at the conference table who was tilting his head and not daring to look up at him, and asked, "Didn't you say that the best way is to pretend not to see it, and then naturally no one will discuss it after a while?
Now they obviously don't want to cool down. What do you think we should do now?"

The executive being questioned was sweating profusely. He had not expected that a piece of fiction would trigger such a huge chain reaction. It was impossible to answer "I don't know", so he cautiously asked, "How about...how about doing some public relations with the media and asking them to cool down the heat first..."

Robin's face immediately darkened. He could accept that his executives made mistakes, but he could not accept that they were such idiots, so he interrupted them without hesitation: "It has always been others who do public relations for us. When did we need to do public relations for others?
Besides, how much will it cost? Can you give me a budget?
And even if we are willing to pay enough, will they be willing to accept it? Will it be useful if they accept it?"

The series of questions confused all the executives present. But everyone soon realized that what the boss said made sense.

When it comes to public relations, the cost is always the lowest when things haven't started to ferment; once everyone knows about it, the money spent is no longer addition, but multiplication.

If he had said openly in the first two days of the publication of "Youth School·Grand View" that "the novel is well written", "all Internet companies should learn from it, and we are no exception", "we will definitely be responsible to the society and to our users" and so on;
If we issue an open letter like Ma did, the matter will be over and done with - at least it won't be so passive.

It has been delayed until now. Even if they are willing to spend money to eliminate the disaster, others may not be willing to accept the money to do the job.

There is no other reason. This wave of popularity is too high and too many people are paying attention to it. Any "cold treatment" will be questioned by the public and will lack the fairness and objectivity of the media.

At this time, the executive who had just been scolded suddenly thought of something and said, "There is... another way."

Robin suppressed his anger and asked in a gentle tone, "Tell me about it."

The senior executive said: "I have carefully studied Zhang Chao's previous cases of public opinion warfare and found that he is soft-hearted and not hard-hearted. Let's not use force against him..."

Robin's expression softened a little, thinking that this was more appropriate, so he nodded and motioned for the other party to continue.

The executive was delighted by the affirmation, but he knew that this was just the beginning and that he had to follow up with the following measures: "Of course, we shouldn't force this, it doesn't mean we should give in to him..."

Two days later.

Zhang Chao's senior brother Yan, Robin, the head of the country's number one search engine, wrote a personally signed article and published it in the Economic Daily. The title is:

"Qiandu search is a lifebuoy, not a tight hoop"

[My senior fellow student Zhang Chao from Yan University described the search algorithm as a "tightening curse" in the digital age. This reminded me of the doubts about the Internet making humans stupid when I was working on the real-time financial system of the online version of the Wall Street Journal on Wall Street ten years ago. In fact, it is exactly the same as the doubts about algorithms today. History is always surprisingly similar, but the progress of technology has never stopped because of doubts - just like when Qiandu was founded in 2003, we firmly believed that search engines are a bridge connecting people and information, not a cage that traps thoughts.

The core algorithm principle of Baidu is hyperlink analysis, which is essentially the ultimate embodiment of the democratic spirit of the Internet. Every web link is a vote, and every click is a vote of confidence. When Zhang Chao was worried about the algorithm creating an "information cocoon", he may have overlooked the essential difference between the Internet in 2008 and 2004: the number of Chinese netizens has soared from 9400 million to 2.98 million, and the number of web pages has exceeded 160 billion. The era of information explosion has truly arrived. In the ocean of the Internet in 2008, the huge amount of data added every day is enough to drown any individual. Imagine a high school student searching for "college entrance examination volunteer application". If there is no algorithm based on the search behavior modeling and recommendation of tens of millions of candidates over the years, he may be completely lost in the maze of "university rankings", "professional popularity" and "employment prospects".

Therefore, the recommendation system is not the key to a cage, but a lifebuoy in the ocean of information!

Of course, I understand Zhang Chao's anxiety, which is based on his grasp of the pulse of the times and his lofty sense of responsibility to society as a young, sharp and top writer. This is also a part of the humanistic spirit that Qiandu has always valued and placed at the core value of the enterprise. I would like to invite Zhang Chao to visit our Qiandu company with the greatest sincerity; if possible, I would also like to hire him as a special consultant or trainer of the company to supervise and guide our business to always be on the right track!
……

Standing at the dawn of the mobile Internet in 2008, we understand all the cautious thinking about technology, just as we understand people's fear of the Internet ten years ago. Qiandu is willing to be the "information lifeguard" of this era, but we also hope that every netizen can become his own captain!
Robin Li
September 2008, 10]

"You're avoiding the main point, old fox." Zhang Chao put down the Economic Daily. "But this article is indeed well written. It's polite and neither humble nor overbearing. It not only whitewashes its own paid ranking system, but also puts me in a good position."

He was in the large courtyard of the "Tide Culture" office area, half lying and half sitting on an armchair, with a small coffee table in front of him, on which were tea and snacks.

Ma Boyong, Shuang Xuetao and others were also sitting or leaning, surrounding Zhang Chao.

"The Man in the Shell" was published, and Zhang Chao also came to fulfill his promise - to take everyone in the editorial department of "Youth" out for a good meal.

After much deliberation, everyone chose the then-famous "Golden Leopard Buffet Restaurant" in Yanjing. The dinner was priced at 238 yuan per person, which was definitely a very expensive buffet in 2008.

Zhang Chao also emphasized that family members could be brought along, so everyone was very happy.

The time was set on the weekend, and everyone agreed to gather at the company first and then go together. Zhang Chao and others were waiting for others to arrive.

The Economic Daily was brought to Zhang Chao by Ma Boyong.

"So will you be the special consultant?" Lan Ting asked curiously.

Zhang Chao looked at her helplessly and said, "If I become the special consultant, won't I be blamed for anything that happens to them in the future?"

Editor Xu Yanling asked curiously, "What could possibly happen? I think Baidu is very useful. I usually use it to search for information. Sometimes when I feel unwell, I can find various explanations on it..."

Zhang Chao was shocked when he heard this, and he sat up straight, and hurriedly tried to dissuade him: "It's ok for you to search for other things, but if you feel unwell, it's better to go see a doctor... It's hard to tell the authenticity of information on the Internet, and it will be a big deal if you delay."

Although Xu Yanling didn't know why Zhang Chao was so nervous, she still nodded and agreed.

At this time, the gate of the courtyard was pushed open, and the last few people came. Zhang Chao stood up and said, "Everyone is here, let's go!"

So about ten people and four or five cars headed straight for the "Golden Leopard".

While Zhang Chao and his colleagues were enjoying their meal, another article was quietly published in Southern Metropolis Daily:

The Darkest Day of China's Scientific and Technological Development in the 21st Century

(End of this chapter)