Beicang, Orange Technology.
In the office, Gu Qingqing looked at Tan Jincheng somewhat crossly:
"You finally decided to come back, huh."
Tan Jincheng laughed heartily:
"Hello, most beautiful CEO on the internet."
"It's all because of you; you didn't even tell me you were going to promote it."
"I learned it from Zhou Ao; he often uses me for hype without my permission. Blame him then; by the way, how does it feel to be famous?"
Although Tan Jincheng was in his hometown, he had been keeping an eye on Kaixinwang's situation. Internet companies need hype, but hype also means uncontrollability.
You never know what kind of comments might appear online.
If any negative comments about Gu Qingqing appeared, the internet trolls controlled by Tan Jincheng would promptly intervene to manage the discourse.
In an era without Weibo, when entertainment agencies still used traditional marketing methods, the internet troll team controlled by Tan Jincheng, tempered by countless marketing events over a year, wouldn't claim to be unrivaled, but they were at least among the top tier.
These people currently serve Orange Technology and Shanchi Technology, but they are actually being trained for future automotive businesses.
The competitive environment for new energy vehicles after 2018 would be even more brutal than for smartphones, and online smear campaigns would be basic operations.
In fact, competitive tactics have always been ubiquitous; a classic dirty trick was the Iveco Da Jinbei, which was severely sabotaged by competitors.
"My sister too; she actually cooperated with you, even specially going home to take photos of me when I was little. But speaking of fame, I'm still a bit unaccustomed to it."
Today is the 20th. Almost half a month had passed since the official promotion on the 7th, and Gu Qingqing had become a celebrity at Yongcheng University, especially in the School of Foreign Languages.
She also had numerous fans on the internet, and her Kaixinwang account had over 80,000 followers, all attracted by the photos in her album.
No followers were bought; they all came to follow her spontaneously.
Unlike the non-mainstream styles popular at the time, Gu Qingqing, who had worked as a clothing model for a period and was influenced by Tan Jincheng, preferred a fashion style more akin to what would be popular a decade or so later, appearing exceptionally fresh and natural, immediately catching people's attention.
Even many fashion magazines felt it was great after seeing her, and some even extended invitations for her to shoot covers.
Women who are beautiful, fashion-savvy, and wealthy are inherently more likely to attract attention, and with her identity as the CEO of Orange Technology, she had even more shining points.
Just like when Tan Jincheng gained widespread attention before, Gu Qingqing's entire lineage was similarly unearthed by the omnipotent netizens.
Born in Yiwu, an only child from a well-off family, her family owned many shops in the Yiwu International Trade City, and her startup capital was also provided by her family.
In addition, the beautiful CEO had another identity: she was the girlfriend of Tan Jincheng, president of the popular Shanchi Group.
Actually, many netizens didn't know this before.
For an offline press conference of a physical enterprise, those who were interested would pay attention, while those who weren't interested had no interest at all.
"Nothing to say, just a small website I set up for my girlfriend to practice and play with."
This domineering CEO-style statement, rediscovered with Gu Qingqing's rise to fame, also went viral online.
If it were a decade or so later, these words might seem a bit pretentious and cheesy, but in this era, they were just right.
Male netizens pursued Gu Qingqing, while female netizens pursued Tan Jincheng, fantasizing about a domineering CEO appearing in their own lives, one who was both handsome and capable.
"Ah, this is the real-life Shan Junhao! How can there be such a person who casually creates a Kaixinwang for his girlfriend?"
"My goodness, he made his girlfriend's net worth jump to 50 million in just a few months, even though her family is also very wealthy."
Gu Qingqing mentioned some troubles she encountered in her classes and life at school, but it was generally fine.
University students had their own pride and wouldn't engage in overly outrageous behavior. Other than that, the department leaders were quite enthusiastic.
Within two years, if Kaixinwang operated without issues, Gu Qingqing would absolutely be guaranteed a spot in postgraduate studies.
Another benefit was that now the entire internet knew she had a boyfriend, and her boyfriend was quite influential.
Some upperclassmen and underclassmen who didn't know the full story no longer dared to harass her.
Moreover, Gu Qingqing was also deflecting the topic to Tan Jincheng, giving him a taste of his own medicine.
Tan Jincheng quietly listened to Gu Qingqing's narration. It was clear that she was actually quite happy about being famous, and her expression seemed a little excited during the storytelling.
No matter how mature her mindset, Gu Qingqing was still just a 20-year-old girl and would have fantasies.
Now, like a celebrity, she achieved overnight fame, becoming a well-known internet personality, the pride in her parents' and teachers' eyes, and the focus of her classmates' discussions.
For the past half-month, the number of times he was @-mentioned in university and high school classmate groups had significantly increased.
Gu Hongshun was also an opportunist. Unlike Tan Lihua, who preferred to keep a low profile and avoid trouble, Gu Hongshun's true nature as a businessman was revealed after his daughter became famous. He had already opened a farmhouse inn.
At this moment, he directly hung a new plaque, "Qingqing Farm," next to the QQ Farm plaque at the entrance, publicly declaring in Gu Qingqing's name that it was an offline farmhouse inn co-branded with Happy Farm.
He leveraged his relatives, friends, and business contacts from previous years, and surprisingly, business suddenly improved significantly, with many coming to show their support.
After chatting and spending some tender moments together, it was time to talk business.
There was no need to worry about Kaixinwang's registered users; the cooperation with MSN was ongoing, and the traffic brought by Gu Qingqing and Tan Jincheng had added many new registered users to Kaixinwang.
Tan Jincheng was more concerned about how many Kaixinwang users could convert into Happy Farm users.
Happy Farm was Kaixinwang's main cash cow. Increasing levels allowed players to plant more crops. High-level crops took longer to mature, which meant fertilizer items could then be launched.
Additionally, as the number of users increased, there would be guard dogs and items derived from them. Low-level items and dogs could be purchased with in-game gold coins, while high-level ones would require real-money purchases.
"Currently, Kaixinwang has over 7 million registered users, and it should reach around 9 million by the end of the month. Happy Farm's registered users should exceed 1 million by the end of the month."
The conversion rate was nearly one-eighth, which was not low for a new game product.
However, it was still far from enough.
He recalled that at its peak, Happy Farm's user count was almost on par with Kaixinwang's user count; over eighty percent of Kaixinwang's registered users had played Happy Farm, and its daily active users could reach one-third of its total users, which was quite staggering.
"This conversion rate is still a bit low. You still need to work harder. By the end of this year, at least half of Kaixinwang's users should register for Happy Farm. Then you can consider cooperating with Tencent."
When making social websites, there was no way around Tencent. For now, don't even dream of defeating it; that was impossible. It would be great to even gain some initiative in a collaboration.
Kuang Ping needed to contribute in this regard. The most important reason for introducing Qiming Venture Capital was his good network resources in Guangdong Province, which could ensure Orange Technology wouldn't be excessively suppressed in its nascent stage.
However, among the BAT trio in 2006, T was still manageable, not particularly domineering, because its industrial chain was not yet complete. B was relatively stronger, dominating the search market and having developed Tieba products.
"This conversion rate isn't enough? The project team thought it was very good, though?"
"This is just the beginning. You currently have over 80,000 followers. You can try adding some friends and truly play 'stealing vegetables' for two days, and you'll understand that 'addicted' feeling Kuang Ping mentioned earlier."
At this stage, Happy Farm users generally had low levels, and items weren't fully developed, so there weren't too many 'addicted' game users yet. The feeling would be different after another month or so.
According to Tan Jincheng's estimates, the craze of "stealing vegetables" by the whole nation would arrive after Happy Farm's user count broke 5 million and began advancing towards 10 million users.
At the latest, it should arrive during the winter holiday period, around New Year's Day to Chinese New Year next year.
However, the nationwide "stealing vegetables" phenomenon also had a hidden danger: the gaming industry's reputation was genuinely poor these days, especially among parents of students.
If farm users were concentrated solely among white-collar workers, it would be manageable.
But once it developed into a nationwide "stealing vegetables" phase, it would inevitably affect the student population, and that would trigger enormous public outcry.
In his previous life, it was also due to this public outcry that farm-style games were indirectly wiped out. The word "steal" could no longer be used, and with it, the fun of "stealing vegetables" was lost.
It would be best to eliminate these hidden dangers as soon as possible.
"You have something important to do next for the farm."
"What is it? Do you have another idea?"
Gu Qingqing looked at Tan Jincheng intently.
She loved listening to Tan Jincheng speak, as novel ideas would pop up in his mind from time to time, and then he would gradually turn these ideas into reality, just like Kaixinwang and the "stealing vegetables" game.
"If the farm's user base grows and it becomes popular, besides facing numerous competitors, it will also face public criticism, just like all other games."
Gu Qingqing nodded:
"Yes, that's natural. When we first talked about making a game, my dad was a bit unhappy, but now he's accepted it."
"Your dad can accept it now because he's a businessman; he's naturally happy when he makes money. But the family members of those who spend money certainly won't think that way."
"So what do you plan to do?"
What to do? It's actually quite simple.
The farm primarily grew fruits and vegetables. All he had to do was link the in-game produce with reality, similar to Taobao's Baba Farm in its later stages.
When users' crop planting levels reached a certain value, they could receive a free portion of fruit or other items like eggs or rice.
Supporting agriculture is always politically correct. Even if parents are unhappy, there won't be much public backlash.
Pinduoduo's later change in reputation was largely because their agricultural support was genuinely good, truly helping many farmers.
(End of chapter)