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Chapter 473 0463 [Night of Bytes]

A Weibo post went viral, titled "Chen Guiliang's Accurate Predictions".

The content is quite long for a Weibo post: "First, in 2006, Chen Guiliang predicted that China's GDP would surpass Japan's and rank second in 2010. Second, in the first half of 2008, Chen Guiliang predicted an impending global economic crisis. Third, in 2009, Chen Guiliang predicted Nokia's impending decline. Anyone have anything to add?"

This Weibo post was widely shared and commented on.

"To add to that, back in 2007, Chen Laozu predicted that microblogs were the future trend of online social networking."

"Holy crap!"

"This is called prediction? This is fucking cheating."

"From now on, don't call him Old Ancestor Chen, just call him Half-Immortal Chen."

"Do you know what business acumen is? This is it!"

"A correct prediction once is just a guess, but a prediction that's right every time is definitely precise analysis. Nokia's decline this year has been particularly outrageous, and I still don't understand it, but Old Master Chen saw it coming last year."

"Wife, come out and see the immortals!"

"..."

Netizens mainly watched for fun and made jokes, but while having fun, they also genuinely admired Chen Guiliang.

Business owners, especially their peers, are thinking much more deeply, paying increasing attention to ByteDance and Youke's related businesses. No matter what Chen Guiliang's companies are doing, they are subjected to detailed analysis.

Therefore, Chen Guiliang's acquisition of a map company in the past two months has been very discreet.

He has been trying to acquire a company with a Class A surveying and mapping qualification, but no matter how he negotiates, it's been to no avail; not a single company is willing to sell. Even acquiring a stake is extremely difficult.

Come to think of it, if they were so easy to buy, Baidu and Tencent would have already spent money to acquire them.

NavInfo went public on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in May last year, so Chen Guiliang decided to target the secondary market.

Its stock price surged from May to July, then began to decline in October. The decline was even more severe in November, with the price falling by nearly 50% compared to its peak at the time of listing.

It's still falling!

Just then, ByteDance issued new shares, raising $2.6 million. So they opened hundreds of accounts and gradually accumulated NavInfo shares, already acquiring more than 3% in a piecemeal fashion.

This behavior only began to slow down in mid-January, as he had driven up NavInfo's stock price.

Let's wait for it to fall again before making a decision.

It is expected that by the summer of 2011, ByteDance will secretly acquire 4.9% of NavInfo's shares.

If you want to buy more, you have to raise your paddle.

Chen Guiliang never considered acquiring a controlling stake in the company, because NavInfo's parent company is NavMap, and NavMap's parent company is China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation...

He just wanted a board seat.

The ultimate goal is to hold more than 10% of NavInfo's shares. This shareholding would grant the company the power to convene an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders.

……

Sina headquarters.

Du Hong, COO of Sina Group, came to find CEO Cao Guowei.

"Hasn't the final plan for the Internet Gala (the predecessor of Sina Weibo Night) been finalized?" Cao Guowei asked.

Du Hong explained, "ByteDance held a Byte Night event, and based on its announced content, it was completely aligned with our online awards ceremony. Moreover, it had more award categories, added some music awards, and invited many popular singers. They even deliberately set the date for the event a week before our online awards ceremony."

Cao Guowei complained, "It really is annoying."

Du Hong presented a new version of the event plan: "So we plan to make some adjustments and make the Sina Internet Awards even bigger."

Cao Guowei read it carefully once, then picked up his pen and signed to approve it.

The annual online gala is a top-level event at Sina, and the final plan must be personally approved by the CEO.

Du Hong left with the signed proposal, while Cao Guowei sat in his office feeling extremely depressed.

After more than a year of Weibo battles, Sina has lost completely.

Not only did they lose to ByteDance, they even lost to Tencent!

In the second half of 2010, the number of users on major microblogs increased at an unprecedented rate.

By the end of December, ByteDance's Weibo had reached 120 million registered users. This includes users of the mobile app, as well as users on PC and mobile WAP sites.

In other words, even if you don't have a mobile phone, you can still use a computer to access Weibo.

This has led to a continuous decline in user activity on HaiNei.com, with many netizens now focusing primarily on Weibo, and traditional SNS websites are no longer as popular.

There is also competition within ByteDance. The "Xiaonei.com and HaiNei.com Business Units" launched their own app versions, but they still couldn't compete with their own Weibo for users.

51.com, QQ Space, Sina Blog, and others were also affected. Although many people still use them, the traffic is far less than before.

The second-ranked company is Tencent Weibo, which, thanks to traffic drawn from QQ, has seen its cumulative registered users soar to 9300 million.

Sina Weibo and Sohu Weibo were the first to compete with ByteDance, but now it seems they've only gotten themselves nowhere, as they've been left far behind by Tencent Weibo.

Sina Weibo has 7100 million registered users.

Sohu Weibo only has 2800 million registered users.

The user bases of the major Weibo platforms are interconnected, and many users register on several platforms simultaneously. Therefore, it's not enough to just look at the total number of users; user activity is even more important.

Sina Weibo has a very low user activity level. Many people now post updates on ByteDance's Weibo first, and then conveniently go to Sina Weibo to repost the same thing. Some accounts haven't been logged into for months.

So, Sina Weibo started selling followers!

With just a little money, you can get a bunch of zombie accounts to follow you, turning you from an ordinary person into an "internet celebrity" in no time.

This approach can both monetize Weibo traffic and stimulate users to use Sina Weibo.

However, the negative impact was deliberately ignored.

Sina Weibo users are already complaining that they hadn't logged into their accounts for three months. Upon logging back in, they inexplicably found themselves following over 20 influential Weibo users. Tencent Weibo's user activity isn't much better. With nearly 1 million registered users, many are just there to complete tasks and collect rewards, rarely logging in again.

Tencent also partnered with other websites, such as Qidian.com, to encourage authors to register for Tencent Weibo accounts and then have them post individual chapters to urge readers to follow them. While this strategy did lead to rapid user growth, it was largely inflated and clearly lacked staying power.

Cao Guowei planned to use this year's online gala to heavily promote Sina Weibo, but he didn't expect ByteDance to get involved in this as well.

ByteDance deliberately scheduled its celebration event a week before Sina's.

That's disgusting!

……

"This is decent."

Bian Guanyue tied Chen Guiliang's tie, then stepped back two paces to carefully observe if there was anything amiss.

Chen Laozu finally stopped wearing t-shirts and jeans, and Bian Guanyue forced him into a suit and tie. Bian Guanyue liked him more and more, thinking her boyfriend looked incredibly handsome today.

"ByteDance Night" was recorded at the Water Cube and exclusively broadcast on television by Beijing TV, and streamed online by Tudou.com and AcFun.

When Chen Guiliang and Bian Guanyue arrived at the scene, they found a large number of fans gathered outside the Water Cube.

Uncle Hat and the temporary security guards were on high alert, doing everything they could to maintain order inside and outside the venue, fearing that the fans might cause any trouble.

It happened once before, six months ago.

It turned out to be a South Korean idol group holding a free concert at the South Korean pavilion at the World Expo. The organizers only prepared 5000 tickets, but tens of thousands of fans showed up that day.

The scene was extremely chaotic, and a stampede occurred.

Those fanatical K-pop fans even attacked the hat-wearing uncles and volunteers who were maintaining order.

The term "brainless fan" was thus born.

This "Three Kingdoms Kill" forum in this timeline, from its inception, was influenced by Chen Guiliang and Xie Yang, who introduced abstract trends such as Photoshop parodies. It has since become increasingly abstract, eventually replacing the status of another forum in this timeline.

So in June 2010, members of the Three Kingdoms Kill forum launched a so-called "holy war," joining forces with several other forums, and 6 netizens stormed into the forums of Korean pop stars.

Their slogan is: As long as the brain-dead die, the holy war will never end.

More than 20 K-pop fan forums were paralyzed!

"Ah, Jay, Jay!"

The moment Jay Chou stepped out of the car, before he even walked onto the red carpet, he was greeted with cheers and shouts from countless fans.

Fortunately, these were all fans who had bought tickets; their numbers weren't particularly large, and they were kept far away in quarantine.

Many more fans who didn't buy tickets were simply kept out on the street, unable to even catch a glimpse of their idols.

Jay Chou turned around and waved to the fans in the distance before being led by staff to walk the red carpet and sign autographs.

Reporters snapped photos along both sides of the red carpet.

ByteDance went all out this time, spending a fortune to invite numerous popular celebrities from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong in an effort to completely overshadow Sina's Internet Awards.

The first edition had to be this big to firmly establish its position in the industry.

After gaining influence, celebrities will scramble to attend, even without appearance fees. Second- and third-tier celebrities, in particular, will consider being invited to ByteDance Night a mark of their seniority in the entertainment industry.

"Another car is coming, the door is open!"

"Who is this?"

"A grassroots internet celebrity, right?"

"..."

This time it's the Xidan Girl. Someone circulated a video of her back in 2008, and she inexplicably went viral a few months ago.

"ByteDance Night" not only invited celebrities, but also inspirational internet celebrities.

However, this was limited to inspirational internet celebrities; figures like Sharp Brother and Luo Yufeng were not invited.

Chen Guiliang doesn't have any ill feelings towards Sharp Brother, but he's really not suitable to invite him to ByteDance Night.

As guests walked the red carpet, even seasoned entertainment reporters were surprised by the scale of the event.

There were many guests that the reporters didn't recognize at all, so they had to check the information provided by the event organizers on the spot.

"Wow, what a scene!"

Guo Degang exclaimed in amazement as soon as he got out of the car.

Accompanying Guo Degang were Yu Qian'er and Chun Ni from Beijing TV.

Yu Qian is a guest, while Guo Degang and Chunni are the hosts for tonight.

Chunni said, "I don't think I've ever hosted such a big gala before."

Guo Degang said, "You have more experience than me. Just chat casually. The organizers said we can talk about anything, just don't go too far with the dirty jokes."

The hosts are carefully selected; they must be famous both online and offline, have the ability to control the flow of the show, and be down-to-earth.

This year's Sina Internet Awards ceremony was hosted by two overly serious people. Someone unfamiliar with the event might mistake it for the Spring Festival Gala.

Unlike Guo Degang, who knows how to create a lively atmosphere.

The two walked the red carpet and then got autographs and took photos.

Chunni asked, "Will the interaction with that Mr. Chen later be really that intimate?"

Yu Qian'er laughed and said, "Just don't bring up sensitive topics. President Chen is very active online, and he has more jokes than we do. You can keep making things up, he'll definitely be able to handle it."

"That's the situation," Guo Degang said.

Just then, the fans outside started making a fuss again, wondering which big star had arrived.

(End of this chapter)