Rebirth 04: Starting from Taking an Unconventional Approach

Applause rang out again in the conference room of the mobile headquarters.

Sun Weimin, deputy general manager of Zhejiang Mobile, smiled and looked down at the audience. His presentation was titled "Leveraging Sports Events to Create New Shortcut Guessing Games."

This service operates in partnership with the provincial sports lottery center, allowing users to participate in match predictions by replying to SMS messages. Each SMS message costs one yuan. Predictions include the winner, score, and number of goals for each match; users who guess correctly will receive a phone credit reward.

During the European Cup, the Zhejiang Provincial Sports Lottery Center sent out a total of 500 million text messages, with 21 users participating and a conversion rate of 4.2%.

After sharing his case study, Sun Weimin also outlined three future plans.

First, we will partner with Chinese Super League teams to launch a league prediction points system and try long-term predictions. Second, we will develop a user community, allowing prediction users to participate in interactive activities such as leaderboards and discussion groups on the SMS platform. Third, we will explore integration with other content to increase user engagement.

"Thank you for sharing, Mr. Sun," Chen Yuanshan said loudly. "Does anyone have any questions?"

Zhang Qiming raised his hand again: "Mr. Sun, I'm very interested in the idea of ​​adding content to the prediction contest you just mentioned. What exactly do you mean by 'content'? For example, match news, player stories?"

"Yes," Sun Weimin said, "there are also match previews, post-match analyses, and even behind-the-scenes glimpses of star players. This content is attractive in itself, and if it can be combined with predictions, users will have something to watch while waiting for the results, which should improve retention rates. However, we don't have our own content production capabilities, so we may have to cooperate with media outlets."

"Thank you, Mr. Sun," Zhang Qiming said with a smile. "The case study I wanted to share is about content creation; perhaps we can collaborate."

"Oh?" Sun Weimin's eyes lit up. "Great! I look forward to Mr. Zhang's sharing."

Chen Yuanshan waited until he was sure no one wanted to speak before he began, "Thank you both for your insightful sharing. The game exploration in Guangdong and the quiz experiment in Zhejiang have provided us with valuable experience. As you can see, data services are moving from simple information delivery to interaction and content. Next, Zhang Qiming from Shanghai will present a case study on a content-based business, which I believe will give you new inspiration. Now, we'll take a 15-minute break."

Everyone got up and left their seats.

Zhang Qiming went to the toilet, washed his face with cold water, and looked at himself in the mirror.

Beneath his neatly combed, damp short hair were a pair of bloodshot eyes, dark bags under his eyes, and below those bags were sunken, dull cheeks. He could hardly recognize himself in the mirror.

Why did he go to such lengths to help Han Fei?

He considered many possible reasons. Perhaps it stemmed from his past relationship with Han Baohua and his respect for her? Was it out of rationality, strategic needs, and considerations of interest as a leader of the mobile company? Or was it out of personal concern for his daughter, Ruiyi?

No, none of these are it.

Zhang Qiming stood there, watching the water droplets fall. He now understood why. He liked that kid.

Zhang Qiming took out a handkerchief, and at that moment a hand gently touched his shoulder. It was Wang Hongxin, the general manager of the Guangdong Mobile Data Business Department.

"Old Zhang," Wang Hongxin said, "you asked two questions just now, and you even mentioned the content business. Is there something good you're hiding? Give me a hint."

Zhang Qiming smiled and wiped his face with a handkerchief: "President Wang, don't worry, you'll find out soon. But I can say in advance that our case study had a much higher conversion rate than your game."

"How many?"

Zhang Qiming lowered his voice and said, "The first day, 13.7%."

Wang Hongxin's eyebrows shot up: "Impossible!"

"Absolutely true."

Sun Weimin also came over: "Old Zhang, what you just said, it wasn't the kind of star player story I was thinking of, was it?"

Zhang Qiming chuckled: "Mr. Sun guessed pretty much right, it is indeed a story-based story."

"That's great," Sun Weimin said. "Our users in Zhejiang Province have a deep cultural background, so they should like this. Let's find an opportunity to talk about it properly after the meeting."

"Okay, no problem."

Zhang Qiming turned and left, somewhat satisfied. Guangdong had the technology and user base, but lacked strength in content operation. Zhejiang had its quiz games and user engagement, but urgently needed content to fill the gaps. Now, even before the presentation began, they had already successfully attracted the attention of two major provinces, laying the foundation for future cross-provincial cooperation.

Everyone gradually returned to the conference room.

Zhang Qiming saw Wang Hongxin and Sun Weimin enter side by side and nodded to him. Zhang Qiming returned the gesture with a smile.

Chen Yuanshan's voice rang out: "The next case comes from Shanghai. You might not know this yet, but it's a very interesting new business. Lao Zhang, come up and tell everyone about it. Please give him a warm welcome!"

A round of applause followed.

Wang Hongxin and Sun Weimin gave knowing smiles, indicating that they understood the situation very well.

Zhang Qiming strode onto the stage, opened his PowerPoint presentation, and leaned towards the microphone: "Good morning, leaders and colleagues. My presentation today is titled 'Content-Based SPs: A New Leverage for 3 Million Users.' The protagonist of this case study isn't China Mobile, but a publishing house called Qingniao."

Zhang Qiming switched PPT slides to display the data.

"This publishing house launched a service called Qingniao Reading, which pushes short stories. Here are the data from the first day: 50 short messages, a 13.7% paid conversion rate, and 68 yuan in revenue. Moreover, according to follow-up, the retention rate on the second day reached 82%!"

After Zhang Qiming finished speaking, he remained silent for a moment to allow his words to have a powerful impact. Judging from the situation at the scene, he had clearly achieved his goal.

Everyone looked surprised and turned to look at each other.

Chen Yuanshan smiled slightly and shifted his body in the chair.

Fang Jing, director of the strategic development department, squinted her eyes.

Liu Zhenhua cleared his throat: "Qiming, has this data been verified?" This was the first time the senior vice president of headquarters had spoken at a meeting.

"Mr. Liu, we specifically checked the billing logs, and all subscriptions were completed by users actively responding, with a very low unsubscription rate. Moreover, the content itself is very attractive..." Zhang Qiming pressed the remote control, displaying the beginning of the text of "Li Yuanyuan" on the screen. "I've selected a section for everyone to take a look."

In my hometown, there's a saying about the "Four Whites": the first snowfall, peeled eggs, refined white flour, and Li Yuanyuan's buttocks...

Snickers, nods, and frowns filled the meeting room.

Fang Jing coughed lightly: "This kind of content... is very down-to-earth, but isn't there a risk of policy violations?"

"That's my second point," Zhang Qiming said, switching to a different slide. "We're not trying to create anything vulgar or borderline; we're creating new rural literature, exploring the true nature of humanity. Furthermore, we've established a triple-review mechanism to ensure we don't cross any red lines. This is our risk control flowchart."