I was exposed for adding my female boss to my group of female friends.

Gu Yuqing glanced at the screen blankly, then frowned and said:

"You see how it will perform in the future? Humph, I won't allow you to talk to me like that. Just tell me directly, or it'll make me look stupid."

Chen Ya smiled and reached out to draw curves on the screen with his finger.

His fingers traced the original path along the curve, and as the curve ended, his fingertips, following the upward trend, drew up a steep peak.

10, 100, 5 million... His finger stopped when it reached the position of 50 million on the vertical axis, and then began to fall back down.

"Did you figure it out?" Chen Ya asked Gu Yuqing, who was standing beside him.

What do you want me to see?

“A function,” Chen Ya said.

Seeing that Gu Yuqing was still confused, he sighed, picked up a pen from the side, and wrote down two strings of functions on the back of his notebook.

"Before reaching its peak, this curve will climb according to the preceding function, and after reaching its peak, it will fall back according to the following function."

Gu Yuqing glanced at the two strings of things and immediately gave up. LOL, she couldn't understand them at all.

"Is this curve a dream love line you imagined yourself?" Gu Yuqing said with no small amount of sarcasm.

"It's just a very ordinary viral marketing model," Chen Ya said. "Viral marketing will have this kind of upward curve, just wait and see."

"Viral marketing?"

Chen Ya didn't intend to explain it to her. In this world, the concept of "viral marketing" hasn't been formally defined yet, and very few people practice it.

"Viral marketing" is a toxic marketing concept created by Chen Ya in his "previous life" in the IT industry.

However, its actual meaning is different from what many people imagine.

For those without a media background, the term might be interpreted literally as "an annoying marketing method," but that's not actually the case. The core concept of viral marketing is "self-proliferation" and "explosive spread."

"Self-replication" means that every audience member is also an information source. Once information is sent out from the source, everyone who receives it also becomes a signal source that transmits it.

Once a certain number of individuals share this message, something amazing happens: you'll find that the speed of information dissemination increases exponentially.

This is what is known as "viral marketing".

In this world, "viral marketing" has not yet become a mature marketing method; there are only some rudimentary forms such as "collecting likes for discounts" in the catering industry.

Naturally, there were no phenomenal operations like "cutting the price" by Pinduoduo, or "lucky koi" and "collecting five blessings" by Zihubao.

In Chen Ya's original world, this kind of operation had been done to death long ago, with things like "lonely frog", "crazy Thursday", "encountering delicious food in another world", "Ji Ni is too beautiful"... the common people were already used to it.

The people of this world have never seen anything like this before.

To make viral marketing work, it's not enough to just have an idea. You need to build a precise community, invest heavily in the right places in the early stages, and successfully brainwash people to get the message moving.

Getting the vast majority of other companies to accept this marketing approach is not a mental hurdle, but it is technically challenging, and they will all have to admit, "We can't do it."

If Chen Ya were to start this kind of marketing from scratch with nothing, he definitely wouldn't be able to do it.

Fortunately, he had connections.

When he was writing songs for Jiang Xinhai, he had planned marketing events and had some resources in this area, which is why he contacted Jiang Xinhai before.

That's the source of his confidence.

After Chen Ya briefly explained the basic principles of "viral marketing" to Gu Yuqing, Gu Yuqing's eyes widened slightly:

"Thank you for your explanation. Although I have gained some insight, I don't quite understand what kind of effect this so-called viral marketing will actually have."

“Wait and watch carefully,” Chen Ya said. “You will see the effect most directly on this screen.”

……

……

At 2 PM, on the Shark Live platform.

Gou Laoshi, a not-so-famous streamer on the Shark platform, hummed a song while starting his live stream.

He spoke softly into the microphone, "I'll take on a commercial order today."

After saying that, he placed the words "Game Name: Sheep" in the upper left corner of the screen.

That's right, the business order he accepted was sent to him by Chen Ya from Beichen Company, for the "Sheep and the Sheep" business order.

As a relatively unknown streamer on the Shark platform, Gou Laoshi has a great attitude and is very humble. He just does whatever his sponsors tell him to do.

He used to call himself an "unknown streamer," but he became inexplicably popular after streaming web games and is now somewhat famous. So he added a title to himself: not unknown, but not very famous.

Soon, a large number of viewers flooded into the live stream. Seeing Teacher Gou's familiar big head, the chat was filled with questions:

What game did Teacher Gou play today?

[Shut up! You call me Teacher Gou? Call me Old Dog!]

My roommate's dying wish was to see Teacher Gou play Fire and Ice Man. Please, please grant his wish!

Teacher Gou naturally saw these comments and repeated, "Today, I'll borrow a business order to play a newly launched mini-game."

It's only just started airing, so it doesn't have a huge audience yet and needs some time to warm things up.

After opening the game interface, he left it there, joking and laughing with the viewers in the chat. Soon, the number of viewers in the live stream reached over 100,000.

Seeing that it was almost done, Teacher Gou rolled up his sleeves.

The business deal he took on was based on a multiplication of playtime and number of viewers, with the revenue calculated using a certain coefficient. In short, the more popular the game was, the more he earned.

Teacher Gou has been live streaming for many years, and his motivation is to make money. Naturally, he wants to take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune when he has a big spender.

"Okay, everyone, let's take a look at this little game called 'Sheep'. I didn't know anything about it beforehand, but it's said to be an extremely difficult game."

Beichen's requirement for Teacher Gou was "first encounter," meaning he shouldn't be allowed to experience it firsthand. The audience should see exactly how it was played the first time, and this point was deliberately emphasized.

Since the sponsor had said so, he naturally had to obey. So all he knew about "Sheep and the Sheep" was that it was a match-3 game.

After opening the game and clicking start, Teacher Gou began talking incessantly into the microphone:

[Brothers, as we can see now, this is a match-3 game. To be honest, match-3 games are the best I've ever played. This developer really made the right choice by casting me in this genre...]

[As we can see now, we are a sheep, yes, a sheep. Match-3, naturally we need to find three to eliminate.]

[We see three blades of grass here. Okay, let's click on them and see. Hmm? We've gone into the railing below. Let's click on one more and see. We're inside again. Okay, I completely understand this game now. It's just that clicking on three blades eliminates them.]

Teacher Gou seemed to be making conversation out of nothing, talking for a long time about a very simple operation.

It's not that he's being long-winded, it's just how you have to do it on a live stream. Even the simplest operations need to be explained clearly, there can't be any awkward silences, because if you don't say anything, the audience will all leave.

The live stream chat was flooded with all sorts of comments:

Is this really a game for adults? The art style... it feels like it's for kids.

[The viewers in the preceding comments are probably quite young. This kind of game might be a bit childish for elementary school students, but it's just right for college students!]

I've seen plenty of match-3 games, but this one is new and refreshing.

[Change games, change games, change games, change games! I don't want to watch this, it's boring.]

……

Teacher Gou wasn't in a hurry and continued operating slowly. Since the first level wasn't difficult, he passed it quickly.

Even so, it still took him much longer than the average person.

[That's it? This is supposed to be an extremely difficult game? Let me see... It does say here that only 0.001% of people can beat it. Are you kidding me? Do you think I'm that smart?]

The comments section was filled with mockery:

[This is only the first hurdle, not the last, and you're already bragging.]

It seems Teacher Gou is invincible again.

[I passed this first hurdle with my feet, but this old dog sat for so long, how embarrassing!]

Actually, the streamer, Teacher Gou, realized how easy the first level was halfway through.

However, he was on the fifth floor, but the audience mistook him for someone on the first floor.

If he does it too fast, the laughter will stop immediately, and what will the audience watch? Where will the popularity come from?

The idea is to gradually diminish the impact, deliberately acting slow and sluggish, making yourself the intellectual bottom line in the entire live stream, so that the live stream will be effective.

After showing off for a while, Teacher Gou pressed the last brick. Then, the screen changed, and a dialog box appeared that read:

[Difficulty skyrockets!]

Upon entering the second level and seeing the interface, Teacher Gou was slightly surprised.

This time it wasn't an act; he was genuinely surprised.

He initially thought the so-called increased difficulty, like the game's cover art, was just a gimmick, but to his surprise, the difficulty really did increase.

It ascends faster than a helicopter.

"Okay, let's take a look and count which bricks can be eliminated..."

He laughed while explaining, but made a few minor mistakes due to eye strain and carelessness, which drew ridicule from the viewers in the live chat.

Ten minutes later.

"Brothers, there aren't many bricks left on the field. The good news is that there aren't many bricks left, but the bad news is that there aren't many left in the box below us. Look, there are no more three-matches left on the field... Damn, there aren't any."

Teacher Gou stared blankly at the screen, and said in a daze, "It's dead!"

Immediately, the screen was filled with "hahahaha" and "23333".

The version that Teacher Gou played was the official private server version provided to him. It had no ads, did not require sharing, and came with items from the start, but he had already used up all of them.

"That's it! It's almost over!" Teacher Gou said, looking at the screen. "There aren't many bricks left on the field, just a little short!"

The reason he repeated it so many times was simply to whet the audience's appetite and give them enough time to laugh at him.

It wasn't until half the screen of viewers were instructing him on how to play that he slowly tapped a few bricks, and then... the words "Slots are full" filled his screen.

He blankly clicked "Restart" below, the interface started shuffling, and then he returned to the first level.

"Holy crap, no way? All that effort for nothing? Guys, this game is really tough, I'm not kidding, it's really tough."

Comments flooded the screen:

It's not that the game is hard, it's that you're stupid, you idiot!

[Your actions are making my blood pressure rise; I feel like stabbing you twice through the internet cable.]

[For a kid to play games like this, this streamer is truly one of a kind! What an infuriating streamer!]

Many viewers have said that the streamer is so stupid. Let me clarify: Teacher Gou has always been this stupid. New viewers, please follow me.

Because it was 2 PM on a holiday, the website traffic was still quite high, and since Teacher Gou was broadcasting during a less popular time, his popularity was even higher than usual.

As a professional broadcaster, all of this was intentionally done by Teacher Gou.

"What do you mean I'm an idiot? Seriously, this game is really hard. You guys don't believe me? Try downloading it yourselves!"

"I admit I made a mistake just now, okay? But I don't think my mistake will affect the overall situation."

"Fine, I'm going to beat this game today no matter what. I'll teach you all to keep mocking me. I won't stop streaming until I beat it!"

Seeing that the streamer had been stirred up, the entertainment enthusiasts all stepped in to fan the flames:

【I bet you won't be able to beat the game. If you do, I'll give you a free airplane.】

[The streamer can't beat the level. If he does, I'll send him a giant rocket right now.]

Teacher Gou pointed excitedly at the screen and said, "This is what you said! You'll get free planes and rockets after you beat the game. Remember these people! If you don't get free planes and rockets after you beat the game, I'll sue you all!"

Immediately, a joyful atmosphere filled both on and off the screen.

Teacher Gou continued to eliminate the impurities, this time he was more careful.

20 minutes later……

"Oh no, oh no, oh no, it's gone again. Did I make any mistakes this time? What do you all think? Was it a bit difficult?"

"It's okay, let's play another game. We're already very close, and we should be able to win the next one."

Another 20 minutes later...

"...It's alright! I made a mistake just now. If it weren't for that mistake, I would have passed by now!"

3 hours later...

"...Holy crap, it didn't even pass?! I refuse to believe this!"