Chapter 553: Infringing Headlines

Singles’ Day sales lasted three days and data was quickly published on the internet. Alipay handled transactions totaling a whopping 5.3 billion.

Compared to last year’s 960 million, this is almost a sixfold increase.

Turning Singles’ Day into a shopping bonanza and boosting sales year by year has deeply ingrained the idea that the internet can transform traditional commerce.

However, some consumers have started questioning Taobao’s pricing.

Was it really a discount? Was it actually cheaper?

Back in 2010, some people did get items at a low price on Singles’ Day, so they picked out goods in advance, waiting for this year’s event.

But they found that the prices of the products they were watching had increased just before Singles’ Day and then were supposedly discounted back to their original prices under the guise of ‘offers’.

It seemed like a discount was given, but in reality, it was just a return to original prices.

However, only a small group of people noticed this and it didn’t cause much of an uproar; Taobao still came out on top.

Moreover, Alipay safeguarded nearly six billion in transactions in just three days without any discrepancies, enhancing its credit reputation to a new high.

Some people are results-driven, and for them, Alipay has indeed achieved fame and fortune in this endeavor.

Another entity that gained both fame and fortune is UC.

Due to its strong traffic-drawing capabilities and the sales figures from Singles’ Day, many advertisers have flocked to this browser platform.

UC’s marketing department thoroughly capitalized on this by deploying information flow ads and earning hundreds of millions in advertising fees within just a week.

The entire internet commerce scene is thriving.

“Mr. Pang, Mr. He, congratulations.”

“Thank you.”

Alibaba’s headquarters these past few days have been filled with congratulations, with He Xiaopeng’s UC soaring high.

Seeing this, Lu Zhichuan couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

After the failure of his investment in Lashou Network, the acquisition of UC was also his sole responsibility. This Singles’ Day event not only demonstrated UC’s capabilities but also validated Lu Zhichuan’s investment acumen.

Otherwise, Lu, the head of the investment department, might not have been able to continue in his role.

But Lu always feels a sword hanging over his head.

Because Jiang Qin’s Tonight’s Headlines is also planning to compete in the same arena.

With the precedent of returning tyrants from the group-buy wars, Jiang Qin’s current internet commerce strategy portrays him as a plunderer.

Especially his way of nurturing brands and harvesting mid-way have made many investors view him as a ruthless terrorist.

Hence, Lu still wants to caution He Xiaopeng not to underestimate Tonight’s Headlines.

“Mr. He, congratulations.”

Lu walked up to He Xiaopeng.

He Xiaopeng smiled slightly: “This also proves UC’s strength.”

“Baidu and Tencent are also advancing in this track. The higher-ups want UC to quickly transform and develop our own search engine, otherwise, we’re just paving the way for Baidu.”

“Right, we have a project called ‘Shenma Search’ launching the day after tomorrow.”

Lu glanced at He Xiaopeng, admiring his preparedness.

Being able to clearly see market trends makes one a future winner, a fact already proven in Jiang Qin’s actions.

Currently, UC’s default search engine comes from Baidu, which actually limits UC’s growth.

For a browser, though information flow and pop-up ads are reliable marketing strategies, they can’t match search promotion.

Why?

Because of precision.

Information flow displays ads to everyone, but having even one percent interested is significant.

Search engine placement, however? It delivers targeted ads based on your searches.

Simply put, it mixes ads into your search results and marks them discreetly as advertisements.

Just like Baidu does, it doesn’t care about your credentials or effectiveness but prioritizes those who pay more, pushing their entries and web pages to the forefront.

UC was incurring losses before its acquisition primarily to enhance user experience and expand its audience by reducing ad quantity.

Just like spending money to gain traction in the initial stages of the group-buy wars, it was all about scale.

But post-acquisition, decisions weren’t up to He Xiaopeng alone. Monetization became crucial at this stage of development.

Therefore, the search engine is one of UC browser’s revenue channels.

Of course, ads impact user experience, especially those not labeled as ads; these can tarnish reputation and sometimes even cost lives…

But then again, Baidu has been doing the same.

Despite its severely declined reputation, Baidu’s dominant position in search engines remains unshakeable.

The era has its limitations. He Xiaopeng’s thoughts on monetization channels are still rooted in PC-based search engine strategies.

He still doesn’t realize that there is a dog moving far along the path of understanding user needs without relying on search terms.

“Mr. He, I suggest you keep an eye on the growth of Tonight’s Headlines.”

He Xiaopeng was pondering when he heard Lu’s words.

Lu, with his arms crossed, added, “I’ve known President Jiang for a long time. Don’t underestimate him. You might not be familiar with the group-buy wars, but… he’s truly formidable.”

“Alright, I will.”

Lu thought for a moment, “How about I invite Mr. Wu from Lashou for a meal? Just mentioning Jiang Qin and group-buy scares him. I’ll have him show you.”

He Xiaopeng leaned on the sofa, deep in thought, “Lu might not know, but Tonight’s Headlines is about to face a lawsuit.”

“?”

Tonight’s Headlines lacks its own news and editorial departments. Except for major news controlled by Lu Feiyu’s content team, the rest are second creations by part-time college students.

These students sometimes browse a webpage or accidentally see a news item and then write an article for Tonight’s Headlines.

Others, good at muddying the waters, heavily cite original news in their articles, earning an original content fee through copying.

This has led to some articles involving copyright infringement.

Just this Wednesday, Lu Feiyu received a legal notice from Sohu News, accusing six sports news articles and thirteen entertainment articles of copyright infringement.

Sohu demanded a public apology from Tonight’s Headlines and a compensation of 350,000 yuan for infringement.

Then Tencent News followed, accusing Tonight’s Headlines of stealing their societal news content in sixty-three articles involving five contributors.

However, Tencent, Zhihu, and group-buy all have partnerships, so they haven’t sent any legal notices.

This forms a part of a subsequent media assault.

After receiving the legal notice, Lu Feiyu immediately contacted Jiang Qin, but Jiang wasn’t surprised.

It’s common to get your feet wet if you frequently walk by the river.

They don’t even have an editorial department, so such outcomes are only natural.

“What do we do now?”

“It’s not us who infringed, but the contributors. Even if there is compensation or an apology, it shouldn’t be our responsibility.”

The speaker was Chen Qiong, a manager recruited from a newspaper.

Jiang glanced at him, “How are you more capitalist than me?”

“Thank you, boss, for the compliment.”

“?”

Jiang thought to himself, ‘capitalist’ is clearly a pejorative term; how did it become a compliment for you? “Our part-time contributors are students. Are you asking them to pay this 350,000 yuan? Do you want to ruin them?”

Chen was stunned, “But they did wrong first by stealing others’ work to make money here. That’s quite despicable.”

“Everyone makes mistakes when young; besides, I can afford the 350,000 yuan.”

Dong Wenhao frowned, “Boss, are we paying this amount ourselves?”

Jiang nodded, “We’ll pay. Let the students apologize, but not right now.”

“Sohu gave us three days.”

“Send someone eloquent to argue and buy a week.”

Jiang explained softly to their puzzled looks, “After a week, our improved content creation platform ‘Toutiao’ will open to the whole society. We need more creators involved, and this news should make good publicity.”

Dong pondered for a while, “We cover the creators’ backs, turning a bad situation into a good one?”

“Correct. But we still need to strengthen oversight to prevent this from happening again.”

“Understood.”

Lu Feiyu slammed the table, “Then let me handle the arguments!”

Dong quickly responded, “Forget it, I’ll go. If you go, not three days but probably by tomorrow, we’ll be in court.”

Lu Feiyu, “Really?”

Jiang glanced at him, “Not really. I’d say by tonight.”

“……”

For the time being, Tonight’s Headlines dropped their previously planned promotions to keep things quiet while negotiating with Sohu.

Meanwhile, the content creation platform known as Toutiao Number continued to optimize, striving to further simplify entry requirements and adding more tools beneficial for creators.

Additionally, Jiang increased investment in the algorithm lab, continuing to expand, recruiting experts in the field to further improve algorithms and avoid homogenization while interlinking the same areas.

Some things, when they appear, become immensely popular, and people think they were always meant to be that way.

But in reality, the journey from nothing to something is quite long.