Entertainment mogul: Starting his business with the internet

Chapter 184 The First Episode of March

March 2nd, Sunday.

At seven o'clock in the morning, a gentle breeze was blowing, and the air still carried a hint of early spring chill.

As usual, Song Ci finished her daily morning exercise and walked briskly along the path back to the villa.

After running several laps around the garden, his breathing remained even and deep, demonstrating his excellent physical fitness and disciplined lifestyle.

Returning home, a warm and comfortable atmosphere greets you.

Song Ci walked straight to the sofa and sat down. She picked up a glass of warm water that the maid had prepared and took a sip to replenish the water she had lost after exercising.

When Sister Li saw Song Ci return from his exercise, she stepped forward and said with a smile, "Sir, when you went to exercise, Madam had already gotten up and had breakfast."

Song Ci was slightly taken aback upon hearing this, as Miss Liu rarely got up this early except when filming.

After breakfast, Song Ci went upstairs to the study. As she pushed open the door, she saw Miss Liu with her hair simply tied up in a ponytail.

She was sitting in front of the computer, engrossed in watching the screen, completely unaware of his arrival.

Song Ci tiptoed forward, with a hint of playfulness and intimacy, and reached out to grab his girlfriend's ponytail.

She gently pulled her back, moving her slightly away from the computer screen, her words carrying both concern and a hint of reproach: "Aren't you going to protect your eyes by sitting so close to the screen?"

At this moment, Liu Shishi was staring at the screen with excitement, completely immersed in her own little world, until she felt someone pull her ponytail from behind, and only then did she belatedly realize that Song Ci had come to the study.

Without turning her head, she said coquettishly, "Hey, don't pull my braids, darling!"

Song Ci glanced at the screen and couldn't help but chuckle.

It turns out that Liu Shishi was playing "Happy Farm," a social game that just launched on Tengda Weibo yesterday. No wonder she was so engrossed in it.

Yesterday, the first day of March, Tengda Group's newly developed game "Happy Farm" was quietly launched.

Unlike its previous high-profile approach, Tenda has been very low-key about this game. It has neither used the group's resources to promote it extensively nor conducted any external publicity. It has simply opened an advertising link on its Weibo homepage, which can be described as very low-key.

This situation is not because Tenda Group does not value this game, but because it plans to fully utilize Weibo's existing user base first, and then gradually expand into other markets when the time is right.

On the screen, Ms. Liu's small farm was thriving, with various crops growing vigorously and lush greenery. Occasionally, a few leisurely small animals could be seen wandering around the farm.

"Yiyi, this Happy Farm game is so addictive!"

Song Ci's lips curled up, revealing a smug smile.

He was well aware that "Happy Farm" was about to become a huge hit, and this was a trump card he had carefully planned, hoping to use this opportunity to solidify Weibo's victory in the social networking field.

Liu Shishi suddenly exclaimed, "Ah, someone stole my vegetables!"

While I was chatting with Song Ci, her farm was vandalized, and I felt a pang of regret.

"No, I'm going to steal someone else's." Miss Liu's eyes darted around, she smiled slyly, and with a light tap of her finger, she instantly traveled to her friend's farm.

A tiny, "wicked" thought popped into my head: steal some vegetables!

Carefully navigating around the small dog guarding the farm, I skillfully picked each plump fruit, feeling a small sense of accomplishment.

While stealing vegetables, they also made sure to return to the farm to fertilize and water the crops, keeping themselves very busy.

"You go ahead and play, honey. I'm going to the office. I'll come back and have dinner with you tonight!"

Song Ci played games with Liu Shishi for a while, then patted her shoulder and prepared to leave the study.

"Wait, darling!"

Liu Shishi called out urgently, immediately turned around and grabbed Song Ci's arm, not letting him leave.

Song Ci looked puzzled: "What's wrong?"

Miss Liu's eyes sparkled as she tilted her head back and looked at her boyfriend with a pleading expression. She stammered, a little embarrassed, and begged:
"Honey, I'm out of fertilizer on my farm. Could you ask the game's backend to give me some more fertilizer?"

Song Ci glanced down at Liu Shishi, his lips twitching slightly. Without saying a word, he gently broke free from her grasp and prepared to leave.

How could she possibly ask him, the chairman of a large corporation, to pull strings to get her some game items? If word got out, people would laugh their heads off.

Seeing that Song Ci was about to leave, Liu Shishi was extremely anxious. She hurriedly got up and chased after him, grabbing his strong waist from behind.

She nuzzled her little head affectionately against his back and said sweetly, "Honey, you're the best! Please help me!"

A delicate fragrance wafted into her nose, and she felt a warm embrace from behind, causing Song Ci's heart to flutter.

However, she calmed herself down and refused with principle, huffing irritably, "No way!"

Liu Shishi hugged Song Ci, and after he refused her words, she remained silent for a while. Thinking that her boyfriend was angry, she timidly whispered, "Oh, don't be angry, husband."

Song Ci chuckled and said, "I'm not angry, but I have to go to the company."

"Wait until I've put on my makeup, then we'll go together."

Liu Shishi gently bumped her head against her boyfriend's back and muttered under her breath, "Serves you right for trying to scare me with your deep and mysterious act!"

In Happy Farm, there is a daily limit to the number of times crops can be harvested and the amount of experience gained. She has already completed the basic game tasks for today.

You can only get extra game time rewards if you keep recruiting people to help your Weibo account acquire new users.

But she was too lazy to invite anyone else. She couldn't play "Happy Farm" for the time being, and it was no fun staying at home alone. In addition, she was going to Donghai Tangren Company in a few days, so she wanted to spend more time with Mr. Song.

Song Ci urged helplessly, "If you're going to put on makeup, hurry up and do it! What are you dawdling about!"

"Okay!" As Liu walked past her boyfriend, she turned back and made a face at him, grinning, "Why are you being so fierce, you stinky man?"

After saying that, she tossed her ponytail and ran happily back to her bedroom.

It was estimated that Liu Shishi's makeup would take at least half an hour, so Song Ci went downstairs to wait for her.

Time passed by, and soon more than half an hour had gone by. Just as Song Ci was getting a little impatient waiting on the sofa, Liu Shishi came downstairs like a spring flower.

"I've packed it up!"

Upon hearing the energetic voice, Song Ci glanced up at his girlfriend.

Despite the lingering chill of early spring, Miss Liu wore a gray and white striped sweater over her clothes, paired with slim-fit jeans, showcasing her slender and graceful figure.

Paired with a retro brown octagonal hat, it exudes a playful and artistic vibe.

But these few simple clothes actually took so long to make. Sigh, women are so unpredictable!

"Then let's go!"

Seeing her boyfriend about to turn off the TV, Liu Shishi quickly stopped him: "Just leave the TV on, let me contribute to the ratings."

The program playing on the television at that moment was the recently popular Sichuan TV series "Strange Tales of Liaozhai," in which Liu Shishi plays Xin Shisi Niang, one of the four main female characters in each unit. The series was piloted on Sichuan TV's rural channel last year and received a positive response.

After the Lunar New Year, it was broadcast on Sichuan TV during prime time, and the ratings were quite good, expected to break 1%. This morning, the two episodes from last night were being rebroadcast.

When I arrived at the headquarters of Tengda Group, it was a weekend, and the usually bustling building was quiet. There were not many employees in the company, only a few staff members on duty.

In the office, Song Ci and Zhang Yong sat intently on the sofa, listening attentively to Liu Yan's work report.

Liu Shishi sat in the boss's chair in Songci, which symbolized her status as the chairman of the board. She would check Weibo to see if any fans had left her messages, and then open "Happy Farm" to see if anyone was stealing her crops.

Occasionally, she would pause what she was doing, tilt her head slightly, and steal a glance at her boyfriend sitting upright not far away, her eyes full of love.

Since Happy Farm is just a simple web game, and its strategic purpose is to drive traffic to Weibo, it was natural for the Weibo team to be responsible for its operation.

"Mr. Song, Mr. Zhang, on the first day of the launch of 'Happy Farm,' the number of registered users reached 25."

Liu Yan held a document in his hand, his face beaming with joy, his excitement evident.

Zhang Yong frowned slightly upon hearing the data. 25 users on the first day. On the surface, this number seems pretty good, but compared to the user base of Tenda Weibo, it is rather disappointing.

As of yesterday, March 1st, Weibo has 22 million registered users. Therefore, with 250,000 users, Happy Farm's penetration rate is barely over 1%.

Song Ci's expression was extremely calm, showing neither surprise nor joy, but inwardly he still accepted the figure of 25 to a certain extent.

After all, the advantage of Happy Farm lies in its strong subsequent spread and unique social interactivity.

My own daughter, Ms. Liu, is very addicted to it, and I imagine that ordinary users are the same; they will most likely become addicted as well.

Seeing that neither of the two leaders showed a smile, Liu Yan's heart skipped a beat; she seemed to have been too happy too soon.

He quickly continued reporting: "Because some game users are actively recruiting others to earn game rewards, Weibo's new user count yesterday increased by 68% compared to the previous day."

This marks the highest single-day user growth since the end of the Spring Festival holiday. This clearly demonstrates that "Happy Farm" has a significant positive impact on Weibo's user growth.

Hearing this, Zhang Yong slowly nodded, agreeing as if it were the most natural thing in the world:

"This was an inevitable result. President Song decided to launch the 'Happy Farm' project in order to find new growth points for Weibo and thus widen the gap with Tencent Weibo."

After hearing this, Song Ci casually asked, "How many users does Tencent Weibo have now?"

Liu Yan was very familiar with the competitors' data and answered without hesitation: "Currently, there are around 850 million users."

"From the day it was hastily launched, it took only 40 days to develop more than 800 million users!"

Tencent's strength is indeed not to be underestimated. Having QQ to drive user growth is really convenient. Song Ci couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

Mentioning QQ, Liu Yan gritted his teeth, looking indignant:

"Damn Tencent, they actually launched a referral program that gives away QQ coins. It's disgusting. What's worse is that they even made QQ block our Weibo account. It's just unfair competition."

Song Ci nodded slightly and chuckled: "Business competition is just that cruel. How could your competitors possibly let you grow and thrive?"

Toutiao's rise was due to a favorable timing coupled with the neglect and underestimation of the three major players. They probably didn't expect Tenda to rise so quickly.

After a sigh, he continued, "How are the other Weibo companies doing, especially Xinlang Company?"

Zhang Yong confidently stated, "These companies all have two to three million users, so there's nothing to worry about."

As for Xin Lang, he was severely damaged by our short-selling attack on the stock market last time, and he's still licking his wounds.

Song Ci nodded. It seemed that the ultimate winners of the Weibo battle could only be Tenda and Tencent. The other companies were not as strong as the two groups in terms of overall strength, and their user numbers were far behind, so there was basically no chance of them catching up.

Boom boom boom!
After knocking on the door, Wang Jing entered the office, glanced around, and greeted Liu Shishi with a smile: "Shishi is here too, what a rare guest!"

"Jing-jie, it's been a long time! How have you been?"

Liu Shishi responded enthusiastically, saying that Wang Jing was a staunch supporter of poetry and literature, and a strong ally.

Upon hearing this, Song Ci jokingly remarked, "Judging from Sister Jing's joyful expression, I know good things are on the horizon."

Wang Jing didn't hesitate and readily admitted that she and her boyfriend had met with both sets of parents during the Spring Festival this year and were preparing to get engaged during the May Day holiday.

Even the usually serious Zhang Yong made a rare joke: "President Wang, instead of spending the weekend with your boyfriend, you're coming to the company to work overtime!"

Liu Yan wasn't of a high enough rank to dare joke with Wang Jing, so he just listened quietly.

However, his gaze fell on Liu Shishi behind the desk. This must be the chairman's girlfriend, whom he had only heard of but never seen.

This was the first time she had met him; she never imagined that the chairman's lover was a female celebrity.

"He has surgery to perform today, so I came to the company to relax since I had nothing else to do. I didn't expect that Shishi would be here today. Shishi came with me at noon. Mr. Song, you don't have any objections, do you?"

Song Ci laughed and said, "Let's have lunch together at the restaurant next door, the five of us. It's on me."

The group readily agreed and wouldn't refuse the chairman's good intentions.

"Sister Jing, please sit down and let's talk. Since you're here, let's also discuss the group's relocation."

Wang Jing nodded and slowly sat down next to Liu Yan.

"The new headquarters of the group, Tengda Technology Building, has been completed. Starting next week, various departments will begin to move in one after another."

The logistics support department will go first, setting up the building's network equipment, followed by the business departments, with Weibo moving last. The entire group's relocation is expected to be completed in two months.

Song Ci arranged everything methodically, considering that Happy Farm had just been launched and could not afford any problems, so he left the Weibo migration to the last.

“Okay!” Wang Jing quickly replied. She was in charge of logistics, and moving was part of her job.

"President Song, should we keep someone here?" Zhang Yong asked the chairman for instructions. Tengda Group had also bought two floors of property in the Modern Center Building.

After a moment's thought, Song Ci made a decision: "Let's leave it to Tiangong Special Effects. I've thought about it, and it's better for the subsidiary to operate independently and not get mixed up with the group."

Wang Jing smiled and said, "Okay, after we move out, we'll have Tiangong Special Effects move over."

Zhang Zhao has told me several times that the two subsidiaries were sharing an office, which was a bit cramped. Now, this problem has been solved.

"And Mr. Song, after the group relocates, should we hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new building?"

Song Ci said with a serious expression: "The ceremony will definitely be held. When the big leader came to inspect and guide our work last time, he already told me that he would cut the ribbon for us."

"Once the relocation is complete, I will report to the higher-ups so you can prepare accordingly."

"Okay," Wang Jing replied, already starting to plan the details of the ribbon-cutting ceremony in her mind, making sure there were no mistakes.

(Special thanks to the user "lurking and watching" for the 26 monthly tickets!!!)

(End of this chapter)