Restart life

Chapter 412 0402 [Weibo finally allows @mentions and retweets!]

Ten years later, the flying fish costume will be a common sight everywhere.

Especially when Hanfu events are held, out of ten people at the event, it is estimated that five or six will be wearing flying fish robes.

But no one has worn it yet.

not a single one.

The official website of "My Own Swordsman" just released photos of the flying fish costume not long ago. Even if netizens try to replicate it, it would take at least two or three months to make one.

"Sigh, you're graduating too." Xie Yang sighed deeply.

Chen Guiliang said, "You can go to the school, they will definitely be willing to give you a graduation certificate. But a degree certificate may be a bit more difficult to obtain, it depends on how the school handles it."

Xie Yang said, "What I lack is not a diploma, but a wonderful college experience and a love story that took place on campus."

"Did you break up with your girlfriend?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Xie Yang tossed his hair, somewhat annoyed, and said, "We broke up. She has a boyfriend at school, who's even more handsome than you. Damn it, she accepted my gifts while continuing to see that handsome guy. And after all that fuss, it's like I'm the homewrecker."

Chen Guiliang couldn't help but laugh: "This is a sad story."

Can we not talk about this?

Xie Yang changed the subject, saying, "There are so many microblogs out there now, even People's Daily Online has launched People's Weibo. Shouldn't our microblog have a catchy and memorable name?"

"Change my ass. Not only will we not change them, we'll sue them!" Chen Guiliang said.

Xie Yang said, "I asked the legal department, and in this situation, if we file a lawsuit, it will basically come to nothing. The court will most likely rule that 'Weibo' is a generic name."

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "Our lawsuit is not about winning or losing. The important thing is to take this opportunity to promote ourselves and let netizens know that we are the real Weibo."

"I know what to do." Xie Yang understood instantly.

Initially, Weibo was a mobile-optimized version of HaiNei.com, officially called "Hainei.com Microblog".

Chen Guiliang then had someone register the trademark.

The trademark registration for "Weibo" has been successful.

The trademark registration for "microblog" failed. The Trademark Office rejected the application on the grounds of "lack of distinctiveness" because "blog" is a generic term.

More than 30 microblogging-like products have emerged across the country.

Sina, NetEase, Sohu, Baidu, Tencent... they all flocked to create microblogs, and even People's Daily launched its own People's Microblog.

However, Chen Guiliang has already registered "Weibo" as a trademark.

This is quite common; abroad there's "aspirin," and in China there's "USB flash drive." These are all examples of trademarks evolving into generic names.

Although the trademark remains valid, it is difficult to obtain compensation through litigation, nor can it prevent other companies from using it.

end of June.

Chen Guiliang's personal social media account and ByteDance's official account both posted updates:
"When ByteDance first launched Weibo, people had no idea what it was. Our company invested 30 million yuan in advertising, which made Weibo increasingly well-known. Now, many companies in China are directly using Weibo as their product name, encroaching on ByteDance's advertising achievements..."

"ByteDance owns the 'Weibo' trademark. Our company has officially filed lawsuits against more than 30 companies or websites, including Sina, NetEase, Sohu, Baidu, Tencent, Kongzhong, People's Daily Online, and Digu.com, demanding that these companies immediately cease using 'Weibo' as their product name."

"Our company kindly reminds you that 'microblog' is a generic term that can be used. When registering and promoting your company, please be sure to add the word '客' (ke) after 'microblog'."

The post immediately attracted widespread attention and discussion.

Xie Yang also mobilized media and online trolls to take the opportunity to promote ByteDance's Weibo as the most authentic. ByteDance's Weibo product predates Twitter in the United States and is considered the originator of global microblogging.

"Is our village without internet access? How can there be more than thirty different microblogs?"

"Baidu also has Weibo?"

"I really didn't expect People's Daily to have a Weibo account."

"Chen Guiliang is too domineering. He registered the trademark himself and won't allow others to use it."

"They invested 3000 million yuan to make Weibo famous, and they also own the related trademarks. Why can't they sue them, legally, morally, and logically? Besides, other companies can just add the word 'guest' to use it."

"Adding the word 'guest' would ruin it. 'Sina Weibo' and 'Sohu Weibo' are just too awkward to pronounce."

"..."

Zhang Chaoyang @ Chen Guiliang: "Brother, that's a bit unfair of you."

Chen Guiliang replied: "Even close brothers should keep clear accounts. I'll treat you to dinner later, and I'll also bring you a lawyer's letter."

Zhang Chaoyang: "Get lost!"

Wang Erlei (@Chen Guiliang): "I treated you to coffee last time. Besides, Kongzhong.com started making Weibo only two or three months after ByteDance."

Chen Guiliang replied: "But what you guys call Weibo isn't. The official name of the product at the time was 'Dulala,' commonly known as 'Airborne Messenger.' I'm the one who made Weibo famous, and that's why you changed the name to Airborne Weibo. Let's stick to the point; I'll treat you to coffee next time."

Even so, Chen Guiliang still called them to avoid a real falling out over such a small matter.

Although it wasn't explicitly stated on the phone, Zhang Chaoyang and Wang Erlei understood that Chen Guiliang wanted to take the opportunity to promote his products. In the first half of this year alone, the number of mobile phone users in China surged by one-third.

As a result, Weibo entered a period of rapid development!

We must seize the opportunity to promote and expand, or we will be overtaken by Sina—Sina Weibo in another era has exceeded 1000 million registered users in just eight months.

At that time, ByteDance's Weibo had more than 1300 million registered users. Half of them were new users who registered in the last six months.

Wang Xin's Fanfou account was originally ranked second with over 300 million users. However, due to its tolerance of the spread of harmful information, it has been ordered to shut down and rectify its practices.

Sina Weibo is gaining momentum, with its user base exceeding 200 million. It currently ranks second.

Weibo on the air, with 150 million users.

Digu Weibo, 100 million users.

Sohu, NetEase, and Tencent's microblogs all have hundreds of thousands of users.

Chen Guiliang sued dozens of companies in one go, and all because of the recently popular Weibo. This news is truly eye-catching.

Traditional media outlets have reported on this issue, with the main point of discussion being whether "Weibo" is an abbreviation for "microblog" and whether it is appropriate for a single company to monopolize it as a trademark in the long term.

Many ordinary people who still relied on newspapers for information were learning about "microblogs" for the first time. Some were even learning about Chen Guiliang and ByteDance for the first time.

The publicity effect is fantastic!
China Entrepreneur magazine took a different approach to reporting on the matter:

"Chen Guiliang, who is about to graduate from university, is probably one of the IT entrepreneurs who is best at seizing opportunities and has the keenest business acumen. Sometimes, you could even say he is the most outstanding..."

"Back then, Weibo was relegated to the sidelines and was ridiculed as a superfluous product that was like taking off your pants to fart. I first heard about Weibo a few years ago at an internet conference. At that time, Chen Guiliang was promoting Weibo, and the Koreans were promoting 'I Believe'. The two products are essentially the same. As for Twitter, it was nowhere to be seen at that time."

"Who could have predicted that in just a few years, Weibo would become a hot investment destination, attracting dozens of companies of all sizes? But for an internet product, a few years is a very long time. Chen Guiliang actually started working on Weibo several years in advance! Was he farsighted, or just lucky to stumble upon it?"

"If it's just good luck, can it keep going like this? Last year, SNS websites experienced explosive growth, and this year, Weibo has also experienced explosive growth, and Chen Guiliang happened to have been working on these two things for a long time."

"In my opinion, ByteDance's stock price is severely undervalued and should be at least ten times higher to be considered a normal level..."

"Now that ByteDance is suing more than 30 companies simultaneously with the Weibo trademark, I believe it will become a classic case in Chinese business history..."

Xie Yang immediately instructed his publicity staff to forward the article.

They operated with great skill, and the headline had a strong "Chen Guiliang style": Shocking! Chen Shiyi actually thought of this kind of thing years in advance!

Amidst heated discussions in newspapers, magazines, and on the internet, two concepts have gradually gained widespread acceptance:

First, Chen Guiliang is a master of online social networking, having laid the groundwork several years in advance. In contrast, his competitors have only started to follow suit in the last two years.

Second, all microblogging products, including Twitter, are imitations of ByteDance's microblogging platform.

……

Sina headquarters.

Peng Shaobing, head of Sina Weibo, pointed to the projection on the wall and said, "Look at these reports and online comments. Our Weibo has become a knock-off."

The other participants in the meeting were thinking to themselves: It's just a knock-off product.

Peng Shaobing said, "We were already several steps behind, and now we're even slower. Yesterday I received news that ByteDance's Weibo WAP site has implemented the @ and forwarding functions through mobile browsers."

Implementing the @ and forwarding functions on mobile WAP sites isn't technically difficult; it could have been done two or three years ago. However, the user experience is terrible, so it would have been better not to release the function at all.

But this year the conditions are right.

First, mobile network speeds have increased. Although 3G is not yet widespread, EDGE (2.75G) has been implemented in large and medium-sized cities.

Secondly, there is an increase in smartphones, and many feature phones also support advanced operations.

Third, WAP technology has become more mature.

Starting this month, ByteDance's Weibo platform will no longer be limited to receiving information unilaterally. Users can finally @ friends and retweet their friends' posts.

Peng Shaobing then switched to the PowerPoint presentation: "ByteDance's Weibo redesign not only added the @ and retweet functions, but also cut a lot of unnecessary content. Their interface has become much simpler. I used it last night, and the user experience was excellent. Tell me, how do we catch up?"

He Caitou (a well-known online writer and product consultant for Sina Weibo) said: "ByteDance Weibo now has 1300 million users, which is just a fraction of theirs. Therefore, we should find another way."

“Tell me in detail,” Peng Shaobing said.

He Caitou said, "First, there are artsy youths; second, there are celebrity fans; and third, there are current affairs enthusiasts. We'll invite a group of directors, writers, and hosts to attract artsy youths. Then we'll invite a group of celebrities to attract their fans. Finally, we'll invite internet celebrities and public intellectuals to attract netizens who like to comment on current events."

Liu Xinzheng, who later became the vice president of Sina Weibo, was still a product manager at the time. He said, "Don't do the third one for now. This year is the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Fanfou and Weibo were shut down for doing this. But we don't need to stop it either. Let it happen naturally and strengthen the review process."

Cao Zenghui, head of Sina Weibo's operations, said, "Now, not only celebrities and writers, but even entrepreneurs are flocking to Haiwainet. Look at someone like Zhang Chaoyang, who clearly has his own Sohu blog, but he always likes to post updates on Haiwainet. Haiwainet has already converted many celebrities and writers into their Weibo users. How do we get these people to come over?"

Everyone was silent.

After thinking for a long time, Peng Shaobing finally blurted out, "I will apply to the higher authorities for more funds to do this."

(End of this chapter)