Huayu: The Big Players Behind the Scenes

The Penguin's inaugural Star Awards ceremony

It sounds good, but in reality, it's just a half-baked award these days.

It's already a favor that Zhuang Huai'an was able to watch the whole thing.

Of course, it was also because my wife won the "Most Popular Actress" and "Most Charming Actress" awards, which were determined by public vote.

The ceremony ended after 10 p.m., and he asked Zhang Lu and the Longhu brothers to take Liu Yifei home while he walked alone to the back door of the Tianqiao Theater.

A black Audi was parked on the side of the road. The window rolled down, and Little Ma, sitting in the back seat, waved to him.

"Chairman Zhuang, over here."

Zhuang Huai'an opened the door and got into the car.

"I've prepared the venue; it's not far. The main problem is that there are too many people today, and I won't be able to speak at the reception."

"Okay, I'll follow Mr. Ma's arrangements."

Although it was their first time meeting, the two acted like old friends, their familiarity almost unbelievable.

After driving for about ten minutes, the car stopped at the entrance of an alley.

Little Ma led Zhuang Huai'an inside, turned two corners, and entered a courtyard house. There was no sign at the entrance, only two lanterns hanging there, swaying in the wind.

The room was small, with a table and two chairs, a calligraphy scroll hanging on the wall, a tea set on the table, and water already boiling in the kettle.

Brother Ma sat in the main seat, skillfully arranging the tea set. He poured the tea to about seven-tenths full, then smiled and handed it over, saying, "This is Phoenix Dancong tea brought from my hometown. Chairman Zhuang, please try it and see if it suits your taste."

"Mr. Ma's tea-making skills are quite good." Zhuang Huai'an tapped the table three times with his fingers.

Seeing this, a smile flashed in Brother Ma's eyes. "As a Chaoshan native, tea brewing is a skill I've learned since childhood."

"The tea is excellent, and the craftsmanship is superb," ​​Zhuang Huai'an said with a smile after taking a small sip.

The two exchanged pleasantries, and their forms of address quickly changed from Chairman Zhuang and General Manager Ma to "Brother" and "Old Brother."

After three rounds of tea,

Brother Ma got straight to the point: "Brother, although this is our first meeting, I've long admired you. Besides, my father and your uncle are best buddies, so I won't beat around the bush."

Tencent now has over 200 million users, and has successfully developed QQ, QQ Space, and QQ Games. However, user needs are changing. They not only want to chat and play games, but also want to watch entertainment content, follow celebrities, and gossip.

Today is the first Starlight Awards ceremony, and I think the results are pretty good. But these kinds of ceremonies only happen once a year, and I want to make it a regular event so that users can find entertainment content on Tencent every day.

He paused, then smiled a little sheepishly:

"But Tencent is a technology company and doesn't really understand the entertainment industry. If we just try to figure it out on our own, we'll probably take several years of detours. Uncle Kaixuan is a major shareholder of Tencent, and you have a great reputation in the entertainment industry. I'm thinking I should ask you for advice on this matter."

Zhuang Huai'an held his teacup, not in a hurry to reply.

Little Ma didn't urge him, picked up his cup and took another sip.

The two sat there for a few seconds when a gust of wind blew in from outside, making the paper windows rustle.

Zhuang Huai'an put down his cup and spoke:

"Hey bro, do you know about Twitter in America?"

"I know."

Little Ma's eyes lit up. "It launched this March, right? A social networking site for sending text messages. I've been following it. The user base isn't huge, but it's growing pretty fast. What do you mean, bro?"

"Yes, that's the idea."

Zhuang Huai'an didn't keep anyone in suspense, "But if we're going to bring it to China, we can't just treat it as a social tool. I think it could be the key for Tencent to enter the entertainment industry."

"How so?" Little Ma leaned forward, his face full of curiosity.

"Think about it,"

Zhuang Huai'an patiently explained, "If a celebrity opens an account on it and posts a message like 'I'm so tired from filming today,' and their fans see it, share it, comment, and discuss it, what is that? Free publicity, natural traffic, and user stickiness!"

If this were made, there would be topics trending every day. Fans would know immediately what celebrities posted, what movies they filmed, and who they were with, and the information would spread automatically, making it more effective than any other form of advertising.

Moreover, this thing is naturally integrated with QQ, allowing direct login with a QQ account, pop-up notifications, and联动 (linkage) with QQ Space. With over 2 million QQ users, if Tencent were to do this, no one in China could compare.

Moreover, with this, Penguin will be more than just a chat tool; it will be the gateway to the entire entertainment industry. Content will be generated here, topics will circulate here, celebrities will interact with fans here, movies will be promoted here, and artists will conduct public relations here. At that point, no one will be able to match Penguin's influence in the entertainment industry.

Zhuang Huai'an pushed all the concepts of Weibo to Xiao Ma in one go, and his mouth became dry from talking, so he picked up his cup to drink tea.

After hearing this, Brother Ma didn't say anything, but frowned and thought about it, his fingers unconsciously tapping lightly on the table.

The room was quiet for a while, with only the gurgling sound of water in the kettle.

After a while, Little Ma looked up and asked his first question: "So... how does this thing make money?"

Zhuang Huai'an almost burst out laughing.

As expected of Little Ma, the first thing he asked was how to make money. That's very Penguin-like.

Zhuang Huai'an patiently explained, "First, build up your user base. Once you have a large user base, celebrities will join, and then Google, value-added services, and even e-commerce like Alibaba will all follow naturally."

He paused, then added, "Bro, QQ didn't know how to make money at first either, and now?"

Pony Ma chuckled, adjusting his glasses as he agreed, "That's true, but QQ is a chat tool, so its stickiness is naturally high. Why would users come to it? Why would they stay?"

"Because of the celebrities!"

Zhuang Huai'an explained it to him in detail: "Users come here not to send messages, but to see celebrities. Celebrities are here, fans are here, fans are here, traffic is here, traffic is here, and money is here."

Moreover, it's not just celebrities; directors, screenwriters, producers, film critics, media professionals—anyone involved in entertainment can voice their opinions on it.

"It will become the information hub for the entire entertainment industry. Anyone wanting to know what's going on in the entertainment world will immediately check here."

Little Ma nodded thoughtfully, then thought for a moment before asking, "So... what should this thing be called?"

"Let's call it Weibo," Zhuang Huai'an said with a smile. "Microblog, or Weibo for short, is simple, easy to remember, and you can tell what it is just by hearing it."

"Weibo..." Little Ma muttered twice, then nodded, "Okay, that's a good name, let's call it Weibo."

He picked up the teapot to refill Zhuang Huai'an's tea, and then refilled his own.

"Dude, should we use celebrities as the first batch of users?"

"Let the celebrities go first, including the artists under my management, directors, actors, and singers I know. With these people joining and attracting traffic, the fan base will naturally follow. But the content direction must be well controlled; this is the most important thing."

Platforms like these that allow for public expression must be subject to strong oversight, otherwise problems are likely to arise.

"I understand," Little Ma nodded to indicate that he understood.

Zhuang Huai'an had put everything out there, so it was easy for him to understand. To put it bluntly, this so-called Weibo was just a public version of QQ Space.

Technically it's not difficult. The core is sending messages, following, forwarding, and commenting. If you can spare a portion of the QQ team, you can create a prototype in six months at most.

"Brother,"

Zhuang Huai'an reminded us, "The sooner this product goes online, the sooner we can capture the market. There are no similar products in China yet, so we need to be the first. That way, even if others realize the trend and try to follow suit, we'll already have celebrities and users on our side."

In the original trajectory, Weibo was one of the few failed cases for Tencent. In case of unforeseen circumstances, Zhuang Huai'an had to explain the details of this matter to Pony Ma.

Ding-dong, triggering a sensitive word.

Pony Ma immediately slammed his fist on the table and roared, "Following the trend? Dare? Penguin is definitely going to have the first taste!"

Little Ma's behavior amused Zhuang Huai'an.

Come to think of it, it's always just penguins... cough, let's not talk about it.

"Oh right, I have another idea about attracting traffic." Zhuang Huai'an's eyes lit up as he came up with another good idea.

Little Ma quickly asked, "Brother... what's the plan?"

Zhuang Huai'an smiled and slowly uttered two words.

"QQ Farm".