Chapter 473: Today’s Headlines

The website for “Today’s Headlines” opened for registration and the app’s beta version was released shortly after.

In just one month, the registrations surpassed five hundred thousand.

Some people watched it while eating, before sleeping, and even during their bathroom breaks, which significantly increased in duration. Incidents of people lining up and cursing at each other at the dormitory entrance also became common.

Interestingly, some school teachers started watching too, sometimes even forgetting to attend classes until something urgent came up, prompting them to hurry.

“Damn, this stuff is addictive.”

“It’s really captivating.”

“I don’t consider the content as news, but it’s indeed very interesting.”

Back in the PC era, the news industry already had many giants like NetEase News, Tencent News, and Phoenix Network.

But the content on these news sites was usually released after being uniformly aligned, and the people writing the news were traditionally trained, steadfast in maintaining objectivity and factuality, without any subjective color in their text.

Today’s Headlines, however, has a different approach.

Most content creators for Today’s Headlines are part-time college students from various universities, very in tune with pop culture.

They select news that interests them, blending their own thoughts and interpretations into these pieces for a second creative life, making the content interesting, diverse, and from fresh perspectives.

For example, Tencent News wrote an article about a female star attending a red carpet event, describing what she wore and her poses, while Today’s Headlines framed it as the rare appearance of the star no longer having her past figure.

“Who needs objectivity? All my opinions are subjective.”

“Weak sauce, hilarious, a tough guy shedding a tear. How could this perfectly illustrate what we call prejudice and arrogance.”

Yet, compared to mainstream news portals, it’s more appealing and offers more thought-provoking commentary values.

Many first open Today’s Headlines and feel as though the multifaceted nature of the world has suddenly unfolded before their eyes.

Besides the hot news recreated, a significant portion of content in Today’s Headlines includes old news.

Such as the life of XX, legendary experiences of XX, obscure historical facts, bedtime health tips, and three things you must never do.

A middle-aged male teacher, seeing no one around, sneakily clicked on an article titled “Top three secrets for enhancing vitality, still unknown to some?” and a single university student casually opened an article on “How to quickly win a favorable impression from the opposite sex in QQ chats.”

“Have you guys used Today’s Headlines?”

“Yes, the one advertised on Zhihu. I read gossips there every day. Super interesting.”

“I was browsing the news till midnight yesterday, followed several accounts.”

Hearing the chatter, Zhuang Chen couldn’t help but turn to Jian Chun, “Chun, have you been browsing headlines lately?”

Jian Chun nodded, “Yes, sometimes I can’t even remember what I have browsed, but time just flies.”

“I’m using it too. I feel like it’s broadened my horizons so much. It’s a revolutionary work. Compared to Today’s Headlines, some internet products are just trash.”

“What’s trash?”

Zhuang Chen counted off on his fingers, “Like some online games, pirated websites, and even Zhihu isn’t great.”

Song Qingqing frowned, “What are you talking about? How is Zhihu trash?”

“It’s just a bunch of college students trying to find dates or spreading gossip about different departments. It makes the school spirit seem frivolous, completely lacking a 985 university vibe. It’s trash, I never use Zhihu.”

When trendy things reach a certain stage and gain public acceptance, indeed some people choose to do the opposite, thinking they’re more sophisticated for not following the trend.

Zhuang Chen felt that way now. Everyone uses Zhihu for gossip, but I’m different, showing I’m not ordinary.

Jiang Tian couldn’t resist commenting, “What’s the difference between using Zhihu to read school gossips and using Today’s Headlines for celebrity gossips?”

“It’s different. At least the gossip articles on Today’s Headlines are substantial, thoughtful, and many viewpoints are well-argued!”

“Isn’t it because you dislike Jiang Qin?”

Zhuang Chen was candid, “I’m not that shallow. I’m just talking about the facts. Don’t you think the developers of these two products are not on the same intellectual level? What do you think, Guangfa?”

Zhang Guangfa turned his head, glanced at him, and said, “Whatever, don’t involve me.”

“But honestly, Zhihu is much better than pirated websites. I didn’t say it was completely useless, just not very valuable compared to the headlines.”

The teacher lectured non-stop, and Zhuang Chen muttered in the back, annoying three girls listening.

Just then, a figure suddenly ran to the door, catching everyone’s attention. Though this girl wasn’t from the School of Finance, most people knew her as Jiang Qin’s secretary, Wen Jinrui.

Wen Jinrui knocked on the door frame, “Hello, Professor, sorry to interrupt. I am Jiang Qin’s secretary. Is our boss here?”

“Jiang Qin?”

The professor adjusted his reading glasses and looked around, “Your boss isn’t here, but Feng Nanshu is.”

Wen Jinrui added, “Could I take a moment to speak with our boss’s wife?”

“Go ahead.”

Wen Jinrui immediately entered the classroom and placed a folder on Feng Nanshu’s desk. Its cover, flaunting a large red and white logo, was very eye-catching.

“Boss’s wife, I came to deliver some documents for the boss. He said he’d be here soon, but I guess I arrived early. Could you pass these to him? I need to head to headquarters soon.”

Feng Nanshu looked up at her, “Jinrui, you’re a good person.”

Wen Jinrui was pleasantly surprised, “Ah? Thank…thank you for the praise, boss’s wife.”

Seeing this, Song Qingqing couldn’t help but smile brightly, “Oh, so this deeply profound and high-end product is also from my idol’s company.”

Zhuang Chen was silent for a moment before speaking, “Then I won’t say it’s bad. Today’s Headlines is indeed good.”

Zhang Guangfa turned his head and looked at Zhuang Chen, thinking, Jiang Qin’s entrepreneurial skills weren’t learned, but that persistent mouth you’ve certainly acquired a bit of.

Zhuang Chen then turned his head, his expression somewhat solemn, “I find I’m understanding myself less and less…”

“You’re bewitched.”

“What do you mean?”

Zhang Guangfa lowered his voice, “You were always unimpressed, but now he has one hundred eighty million. Why the resentment? Because your face is big?”

Zhuang Chen frowned, “I just want Jian Chun to notice me.”

“Then don’t worry about Jiang Qin’s presence. Just show your strengths.”

“What strengths do I have?”

“Your…your hairstyle is quite good.”

While the two were chatting, a figure stealthily entered the classroom, quieter than a thief.

People were still marveling that Today’s Headlines was Jiang Qin’s work when this figure suddenly caught everyone’s attention. Could this really be the billionaire boss?

Just then, as the old professor finished writing on the board and turned around, he saw Jiang Qin sneaking halfway across.

They locked eyes, and the atmosphere turned awkward.

“Sorry, professor, I’m late.”

“No problem, you’re only forty minutes late. There are still five minutes to go, take a seat.”

Jiang Qin thought to himself, you should have said so earlier, then I would have strutted in. He then sat next to Feng Nanshu.

Cao Guangyu couldn’t help hitting him from behind, “Today’s Headlines is your development? Weren’t you working on group buying?”

“Just a leisurely endeavor, a modest work, quite laughable.”

Young master Cao took a deep breath, thinking you’re quite the poser, huh? I got hooked and couldn’t stop browsing last night, and here you call it a modest piece. He clicked his pen repeatedly, then took out his notebook and wrote this down.

In fact, Jiang Qin wasn’t boasting. Currently, group buying was the main focus of his business strategy, and Today’s Headlines wasn’t the main business.

At least, it wasn’t the focus at this stage.

However, since he had started it, Jiang Qin still hoped to quickly scale it up.

At this moment, Feng Nanshu took the document Wen Jinrui had delivered, handing it over to Jiang Qin, “Jinrui delivered this.”

“Has the recruitment ended?”

Jiang Qin took the folder, opened it, and saw the Content Management department had hired about ten while the Review team got twenty.

Besides, Wei Lanlan had scouted a few algorithm engineers through the recruitment website, and their resumes were also included.

As Today’s Headlines would later transition into the self-media stage, the volume of content would increase indefinitely. Manually finding interesting content would be a hassle, making precise push technology a necessary development focus later on.

This aspect involves algorithms, thus Jiang Qin had Wei Lanlan scout for some potential candidates.

Besides, after the group buying model stabilized the market, precise sales algorithms were necessary to recommend good products deliberately and selected group offers to likely buyers.

Building an algorithm team was essential for this.

This represents the second step in the company’s development strategy, referred to as the talent plan.

With the mobile internet just taking off, everyone is vying for market share, so talent is relatively easy to acquire.

Wei Lanlan had already interviewed these engineers over the phone before via the recruitment company and had noted their salary expectations in their profiles.

Jiang Qin turned around, snatched the clicking pen from Cao Guangyu, and ticked each profile. The principle was not to worry about spending money.

He returned the pen and looked at Cao Guangyu.

If he revealed how much he actually fundraised, young master Cao probably wouldn’t sleep for a month.