Chapter 551: Jiang Qin as a Hug Pillow

In fact, what President He said was true.

Tonight’s Headlines doesn’t have its own news department or editorial team. All the content is secondary creations by part-time college students, so there are no exclusives, which means it’s normal for them to be a few minutes to an hour slower than others.

Additionally, due to the strong subjective consciousness of college students, different versions of the same event may emerge, lacking objective fairness.

Sometimes they start with just a picture and make up the rest.

Jiang Qin also once said that Tonight’s Headlines is not really a news app but merely an open content platform disguised in the guise of news.

In this era, the objectivity and speed of news publication are still quite important.

Many news apps like to race for exclusives to attract fresh audiences and boost their traffic through sensational headlines.

But if a content platform consistently delivers one-sided, stereotypical false news and rumors without factual basis, how can it possibly succeed in the long run?

However, this is precisely the positioning of Tonight’s Headlines, representing the prototype of self-media in news.

You cannot say that all its secondary creations are fake news because there are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand readers’ eyes; it just shows audiences different perspectives on the same event.

Additionally, Tonight’s Headlines cooperates with news websites, where on significant events, there is no apparent bias.

But looking at the current development status, Tonight’s Headlines does seem a bit reckless in the eyes of many.

The previous version, Tonight’s Headlines 1.0, hadn’t shown effective algorithmic recommendation, and its personalization was not highly praised, so it’s not surprising that it was seen as a hopeless product.

“What’s the situation with LaShou now?”

As He Xiu Peng left, Pang Rui couldn’t help but ask.

Lu Zhichuan shook his head: “They planned to finance an IPO but were reported.”

“Reported?”

“Suspected of financial fraud; CCTV also reported on this, and their trademark was involved in infringement… a total mess.”

After listening, Pang Rui nodded and looked out the window.

At its peak, LaShou was valued at ten billion and was unparalleled. Back then, Pang Rui had just met Jiang Qin, who was young and dared only to bet on the future.

But in just two years, the huge group-buying market had silenced other voices.

Knowing a genius and witnessing a genius rise are wholly different feelings. Even though the tail end of the group-buying war had passed half a month ago, Pang Rui still felt the shock.

Currently, Pintuan had conquered about a hundred cities with nearly five thousand cooperating chain brands.

The money burned in the group-buying market became his stepping stones for rapid expansion.

Thinking from beginning to end, Pang Rui felt that perhaps the entire development of group-buying was under his control.

Since the public opinion battles ended, lots of insider rumours began to spread. Some say the group that ignited the group-buying frenzy, Sui Xin Tuan, originally rose by copying Pintuan’s framework and model.

But at that time, Jiang Qin wasn’t angry. He even offered them development suggestions and claimed he wouldn’t expand into the national market.

Looking at it this way, his initial strategy was to wait for others to chop firewood and heat up the market, incubate brands, and then reap the benefits.

To achieve this, he had to accurately predict the market’s development trajectory.

Pang Rui hadn’t seen such a person before.

Some can’t even clear their own company’s development path, how could someone secretly manipulate the entire market’s direction?

“Ms. Pang, I’ll go to work now.”

“Isn’t it still lunch break?” Pang Rui came back to reality and looked at Lu Zhichuan.

Lu Zhichuan picked up his coffee cup: “I have an appointment this afternoon with the boss of Wandoujia to talk about investment.”

“Working so hard lately?”

“I want to buy my wife a big house.”

Pang Rui was surprised: “I heard from Mr. Xie in the post-investment department that your wife was divorcing you? Did you marry someone new?”

Lu Zhichuan pursed his lips: “Still the old one.”

“Not divorcing anymore?”

“We argued every day, and I was tired of it. I even wished for a divorce, but then I gave her a multi-colored ice cream. Unexpectedly, she cried then hit me, and went to the kitchen to warm up dinner.”

After hearing this, Pang Rui laughed: “How did you feel like buying ice cream for your wife?”

“It was when Mr. Jiang came. I took him to the foot spa, and he excitedly ran to buy ice cream for his girlfriend.”

Lu Zhichuan sipped his coffee: “Sometimes after having too much rich food, you almost forget the old days when we were poor and shared an ice cream.”

“…”

Subsequently, the publicity for Taobao’s Singles’ Day enveloped everywhere, with various marketing efforts continuously.

Opening a UC Browser page, the splash screen leads to a banner, and news pages intermittently display streams of information.

Explosive prices, discount prices, additional markdowns.

This time, the traffic-driving effect was very apparent. Not only did Taobao’s pre-order page visits soar, but registrations on Alipay also began to climb.

In the mobile internet market, browsers have a lower usage threshold and are more widely accepted by the public.

Because… a phone can’t do without a browser, just like the West can’t do without Jerusalem.

But the built-in browser of smartphones offers a poor user experience, so UC continuously optimizes the user experience, improves compatibility, and diligently adapts to the needs of all users.

For instance, its novel reading mode.

Even when data was still expensive, the group that read novels was still large, and those reading pirated novels were even larger.

The pop-up ads on pirated sites were indeed unbearable, but UC’s novel reading mode could block ads from pirated sites and even add pirated novels to a dedicated browser shelf, which was impressive.

Plus, it could download various mysterious links and offer incognito browsing, promoting a clean and honest approach to life and work.

So UC had a solid user base, contributing to significant traffic-driving effects.

This year, Zhihu, which had been a cooperative channel, was dropped by Taobao.

One reason was that after promotions in 2009 and 2010, the college student demographic was almost fully tapped.

Additionally, introducing UnionPay and Tenpay in the later stages-INFRINGEMENT-FREE_TEXT- as a warning, also somewhat irritated Mr. Ma.

At their level of business, face is a big deal.

In Mr. Ma’s view, Jiang Qin was indeed an upcoming star of the internet business, but he’s still a junior. If I hit you, you just bear it, surviving is your skill.

But surviving and then warning me in this way was a bit impolite. If Mr. Ma didn’t respond and just swallowed this, it would be a laughingstock.

Pintuan and Alipay currently have an interdependent relationship; they can’t split, but Taobao could choose to drop Zhihu as a straightforward response.

So throughout the pre-order period, Jiang Qin was very upset.

Damn it, some money wasn’t made, damn!

He had vowed to make every cent find its home. Wasn’t this like breaking his promise?

Most importantly, the high activity of Singles’ Day also impacted Pintuan’s Select business to some extent.

Although Pintuan had already established a genuine product image, and regional delivery was faster than courier delivery, most users were still attracted by low prices and discounts.

Jiang Qin didn’t care about making money, but seeing those solitary coins strewn about, he couldn’t help but feel homicidal.

“What’s wrong with the boss? Why does he look like he wants to eat someone?”

“The boss is kind-hearted…”

“?”

In 2011, Singles’ Day’s first-day transaction volume was 1.2 billion, and all the news outlets were reporting this figure.

Why?

Because in 2010, the total sales volume of Singles’ Day was only 0.98 billion, and this time, just one day had already broken the previous year’s total.

This was almost explosive news, trending in three items.

The entire Linchuan University was immersed in an online shopping frenzy.

For instance, Song Qingqing, who had become a wealthy woman due to a dumpling recipe, was now receiving courier packages blocking her entire balcony.

Jian Chun also bought many items, one of which was a man-high cylinder not very heavy but quite challenging to carry back to the dormitory.

Zhuang Chen “happened” to appear at the courier station’s entrance, silent like a cool guy, and helped carry it without a word, heading towards the female dormitory of the School of Finance.

“What is it that’s so big?”

“A… hug pillow.”

“Let’s unwrap the packaging. I’ll help you throw it away.”

“No need, I can unwrap it myself, thanks.”

“Then I’ll be going.”

Zhuang Chen delivered the item to Jian Chun at the entrance of the building, waved goodbye, and stylishly left. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a blush on Jian Chun’s face and she bit her lip, seemingly shy.

He couldn’t help but smile, his steps lightening.

Then Jian Chun carried the large cylinder upstairs, carefully cut it open with scissors, and revealed a hug pillow with Jiang Qin’s photo on it. She showed it to Jiang Tian and Song Qingqing, and the room fell silent before they secretly asked for the link.

Initially, Jian Chun just placed the hug pillow beside her bed to accompany her when she slept.

However, as Jiang Tian’s and Song Qingqing’s pillows also arrived, emboldened by their partners in crime, they started to boldly sleep with their legs wrapped around the pillows.

Feng Nanshu’s dormitory wasn’t far from theirs, located just next door.

Sometimes when they passed by during class breaks, there was an indescribable thrill.

However, it wasn’t long before Wang Haini, a social anxiety sufferer, discovered this.

She often visited dormitories, inquiring where the handsome guys were, then saw this scene and was silent for a very long time.

Jian Chun was so scared her heart nearly jumped out. She stammered, wanting Wang Haini to listen to her explanation and not to tattle, but Wang Haini simply waved her hand to interrupt.

“Don’t let Feng Nanshu see. If she sees, she’ll be dying of envy.”

“Also, send me the link.” A peculiar light twinkled in Wang Haini’s eyes.

“?”

Jiang Tian was numb: “You live in the same dorm as Feng Nanshu and dare to use such a hug pillow?”

Wang Haini raised her proud chin: “Isn’t that more thrilling?!”