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Chapter 413 0403 [The pressure from Sina is immense]

At this time, Sina Weibo was not a separate department, but a project team under the Desktop Products Business Unit.

"How much money do you need?" Sina CEO Cao Guowei asked.

Peng Shaobing said, "At least hundreds of millions of yuan will be needed."

Cao Guowei then asked, "Are you confident that you can do as well as Sina Blog? When we started blogging, BlogChina had a market share of over 85%. Now it's the other way around, with Sina Blog's market share approaching 80%."

This is also the main reason why Zhang Chaoyang abandoned his Sohu blog and came to HaiNei.com to post updates.

Since Sina Blog had already achieved a complete victory, Zhang Chaoyang simply abandoned his own product.

Peng Shaobing wanted to give a confident guarantee, but hesitated for a moment and still didn't dare to make any big promises: "Although ByteDance's Weibo market share is less than 85%, it's not as strong as BlogChina back then. But Chen Guiliang is too assertive and particularly difficult to deal with. Sina Blog used the celebrity effect to overtake it back then, and now many celebrities have already registered ByteDance Weibo accounts."

Cao Guowei neither confirmed nor denied, but simply told Peng Shaobing to go to work first.

He needs to think about it carefully.

Cao Guowei was previously the head of Sina's IPO and also resisted Shanda's takeover through a poison pill plan. This year, he spearheaded a management buyout, making himself Sina's largest shareholder and giving him very strong control over the company.

Sina Weibo was something that Cao Guowei personally decided to create.

Without ByteDance's Weibo, he would have taken advantage of the market gap and devoted the entire Sina company's resources to developing Weibo. He poured tens of millions of dollars into it over two years. Weibo ads were displayed on Sina's homepage for over a year, and the value of that ad slot alone was astronomical.

Can it beat ByteDance?
Cao Guowei thought about it for two whole days before finally making up his mind: Let's do it!
Back in the day, BlogChina dominated the blogging field, but it was still defeated by Sina Blog.
Cao Guowei called Peng Shaobing over: "I will use the entire group's media relations to promote Sina Weibo with all our might. You immediately expand the ground promotion team and visit celebrities, famous people, scholars, media, and companies one by one to persuade them to join. Also, build a strong customer service team to be their dedicated customer service representatives, helping them manage their accounts and solve technical problems."

"Okay, I'll give it my all!" Peng Shaobing's confidence increased considerably.

Sina Group's strength is terrifying; it cannot be measured simply by money.

If ByteDance mobilizes the entire group to develop Weibo, it could be overtaken if it's not careful.

The following day, Sina Weibo's advertisements appeared on the Sina portal homepage and the homepages of all Sina's secondary channels. Every day, countless Sina users saw Weibo ads as soon as they opened the website.

Following this, websites in which Sina had invested, such as Beijing Internet Starry Sky, Leju.com, Paopao.com, CNBeta, and Eastmoney.com, all featured Sina Weibo articles or advertisements.

Every article on Sina Blog, regardless of whether the blogger agrees or not, will have a Sina Weibo recommendation at the bottom. It makes it seem as if the blogger is making a recommendation.

This action has drawn criticism from many Sina bloggers.

But it's just a matter of dislike; at most, they'll write an article to criticize it. Even articles criticizing this domineering practice still end with a recommendation from Sina Weibo.

Fortunately, the technology wasn't advanced enough at the time; Sina Blog couldn't sync articles to Weibo with a single click!

Then came Tianya, Mop, Xici, Tieba... and countless advertisements and advertorials about Sina Weibo.

Soon, dozens of newspapers and magazines across the country also began reporting on Sina Weibo.

Information about Sina Weibo is everywhere, both online and offline.

……

A series of promotional campaigns emerged within the same week.

Xie Yang was shocked and broke out in a cold sweat: "Old Chen, luckily you hyped it up a while ago, deeply linking the Weibo concept with ByteDance. Otherwise, given Sina's current approach, we'd probably be turning the real thing into a fake. Damn, did Sina invest tens of millions in advertising all at once?"

"It's not just about money; Sina Group's media resources are terrifying." Chen Guiliang was still shaken.

Xie Yang said, "Sina has also set up a ground promotion team, and some celebrities have already announced their entry into Sina Weibo. Of course, our celebrities and stars have not been poached; everyone prefers to use two Weibo accounts at the same time. Only those like Xu Jinglei, who have a deep user base on Sina Blog, have signed exclusive entry agreements with Sina Weibo."

"Let's expand our ground sales team and compete with them for manpower," Chen Guiliang said.

ByteDance also has a ground sales team, but it has never been very large. This time, Sina is forcing them to take real action.

Even as a reborn individual, Chen Guiliang dared not let his guard down.

BlogChina serves as a stark warning.

Who could have predicted that BlogChina, with a market share of over 85%, would be overtaken by Sina Blog in just one year?
Chen Guiliang took out his phone and called Han Sanye: "Mr. Han, when will my scenes be filmed?"

Third Master Han said, "It'll be at the end of this month, but I'm not sure yet. I'll let you know a week in advance."

Chen Guiliang said, "I have something to discuss. ByteDance sponsored 'The Founding of a Republic' with 500 million yuan, and has no requirements for the film, not even the end credits. I would like to request that they send a ground promotion team to the 'The Founding of a Republic' film crew. We promise not to cause trouble, and the director can order our team around as he pleases. We just need to discuss the matter of registering a Weibo account with the actors during breaks in filming."

Without much hesitation, Master Han agreed, "Okay. Send your team over, but don't make it too big; it must be no more than 10 people. Also, if they interfere with the filming, the director has the right to kick them out immediately!"

"Thank you for your support, Mr. Han. I will remember this favor. Please don't hesitate to ask if there's anything I can help you with in the future," Chen Guiliang said solemnly.

Master Han laughed heartily.

After putting down his phone, Chen Guiliang said to Xie Yang, "Even the extras in the 'Founding of a Republic' crew are minor celebrities. There's a huge concentration of stars there. Send your core promotion team there immediately. If all goes well, you can invite twenty or thirty celebrities to join Weibo every day!"

Xie Yang was extremely surprised: "Holy crap, how did you come up with this idea? I didn't even know there was a movie being made."

"I'm also one of the actors; I play Wen Yiduo's son," Chen Guiliang said proudly.

Xie Yang said, "Next time I'll also get a role and experience being an actor."

Then Xie Yang added his opinion: "We can't foolishly compete with Sina in terms of media resources, advertising funds, and on-the-ground promotion capabilities. Our biggest advantage right now is our 1300 million Weibo users." Chen Guiliang was very pleased: "That's right. That's the most crucial thing."

Xie Yang said, "First, we need to improve the user experience. Second, ByteDance Weibo is already linked to mobile phone numbers, so we can now run promotional activities for existing users. As long as an existing user recommends a friend who successfully registers a new user, they can receive a monthly plan fee reward. If they successfully recommend three friends to register an account, they can receive a six-month plan fee reward."

This is where ByteDance's Weibo truly shines: after years of operation, it boasts a massive user base.

Once they launch this kind of viral promotion, Sina simply can't handle it.

Now they're too lazy to care about ByteDance's financial reports anymore, so they're just giving up a lot of revenue from Weibo subscription fees and rewarding users with viral marketing.

Of course, celebrities also need to be brought in.

Xie Yang went to arrange the work, while Chen Guiliang continued making phone calls.

The first number I called was Han Han.

This guy has become incredibly popular in the last two years. Although his "Three Essays on Han" hasn't been published yet, he's amassed a huge following by writing online commentaries.

Han Han has accounts on HaiNei.com, Sina Blog, and Sohu Blog. She has even been on Luo Taijun's Bullog.cn and Hong Huang's Xianhuacun Blog.

He will agree to help anyone who asks him.

But which website to publish the article on, or even on several websites at the same time, depends entirely on Han Han's mood at the time.

Han Han even had a ByteDance Weibo account a long time ago, but he felt that Weibo had too few characters and he couldn't show off his writing skills, so he only occasionally posted updates on Weibo to complain about something.

"Young Master Han, training again?" Chen Guiliang said.

Han Han said, "Just finished training. So, what's up?"

Chen Guiliang said, "Weibo has launched a new feature, which allows you to @ and retweet like on HaiNei.com. Why don't you try it out?"

Han Han said, "Sure. I just launched my magazine, 'Soloist,' so please help promote it."

“Li Xunhuan already told me that he would definitely help with such a small matter,” Chen Guiliang said with a smile.

Both of them were book publishing agents for Li Xunhuan.

Damn it, the royalties Li Xunhuan offered Han Han were even more outrageous than Chen Guiliang's back then—he could get up to 30% tiered royalties!
That's not all; Li Xunhuan later directly gave Han Han shares in the publishing company.

End the call.

Han Han took out her phone and logged into ByteDance's Weibo WAP site to familiarize herself with the redesigned interface and new features.

Soon he stood in front of his race car, took some cool photos in his racing suit, and posted them on Weibo.

With Li Xunhuan acting as an intermediary, and Chen Guiliang agreeing to help promote "Soloist," Han Han plans to post an average of one Weibo post every two days over the next month as a way of repaying him.

As for whether he will post on Weibo a month from now, that depends on his mood.

Chen Guiliang called Guo Xiaosi again: "Senior brother, are you busy?"

Guo Xiaosi said, "I just woke up. I worked until 4 a.m. last night."

“You must be exhausted,” Chen Guiliang asked. “Did you know that Weibo has launched a new feature?”

Guo Xiaosi said, "I haven't found out yet."

Chen Guiliang briefly explained: "Actually, Weibo is more suitable for you. Post some beautiful photos every day, chat about brand-name products, focus on cultivating your own fans, and don't have to pay attention to outside opinions."

Guo Xiaosi only has three social media accounts: HaiNei.com, Sina Blog, and Mengya Forum.

But so many people were criticizing him that he barely made a sound anymore.

Guo Jingming is indeed more suited to Weibo; he thrives on it.

Chen Guiliang called Hu Weishi from "Mengya" magazine again: "Sister Weishi, it's been a long time."

Hu Weishi always speaks softly: "It's really rare that President Chen actually called me on his own initiative."

Chen Guiliang said, "I want to organize an offline forum for writers. We want to bring together writers who have emerged from the New Concept Writing Competition, as well as traditional writers who follow the New Concept Writing Competition, to review the ten-year history of the competition."

Hu Weishi was both amused and exasperated: "Big boss, last year was the tenth anniversary of New Concept Writing Competition, and you didn't even attend the event."

“Last year was quite busy, so I’m making up for it this year,” Chen Guiliang said. “I’m sponsoring offline events for writers in collaboration with Mengya magazine under the name of Weibo.”

Hu Weishi thought for a moment, and without asking how much Chen Guiliang would sponsor, said, "I'll discuss it with the editor-in-chief, and it should be possible to make it happen. But you have to agree to one condition: be a guest at this year's New Concept Writing Competition."

Chen Guiliang smiled and said, "No problem!"

Compared to traditional writers, the young writers who emerged from the New Concept Writing Competition are actually more active online and more likely to attract fans to Weibo.

Chen Guiliang wanted to use the event to capture the entire group of young writers!
After finishing his conversation with Hu Weishi, Chen Guiliang made phone calls to all the entrepreneurs, scholars, and celebrities he knew.

Sina Weibo's promotional offensive made Chen Guiliang feel like he was facing a formidable enemy, and he became more nervous than ever before, feeling he had to use every means to deal with it.

(End of this chapter)