Chapter 641: Strangers for Father and Daughter

Gao Wenhui and Wang Haini felt more relaxed the flatter they lay in Jizhou. They helped Mrs. Yuan Youqin with housework when free and roamed around with Feng Nanshu.

Jiang Qin called every day, warning Feng Nanshu not to pick up any bad habits.

Wang Haini was truly daring to teach, and Feng Nanshu was a worthy pupil indeed.

Jiang Qin thought it was barely acceptable to be tricked into giving food and drinks by a good friend, but felt significantly disadvantaged when taken advantage of while drunk.

“Wang Haini, behave yourself in my house and don’t teach the little rich girl too well!”

“President Jiang, rest assured, my trip to Jizhou is for self-cultivation.”

“Don’t mention cultivation. I can’t stand to hear it.”

Feng Nanshu coldly texted back her phone: “Jiang Qin, when are you coming back to take me out?”

Hearing Feng Nanshu’s voice, Jiang Qin felt somewhat reassured: “Probably at the end of the month, before school starts, I’ll return.”

The takeout market in July, during the summer break, saw fierce competition, which expanded the business scope of Group-Buy Delivery while the Hunger No More strategy grew increasingly weary.

First, their main investor was not supportive; second, being actively targeted was a disadvantage; third, the presence of Linchuan Business Group as a strategic partner was pervasive.

Throughout July, over two hundred cities were encircled by Hunger No More.

Once customers in each city were nurtured, Group-Buy Delivery followed suit, seemingly slow but arriving just in time.

Zhang Xuhao: “Damn, I’m really strong. Survived another day!”

During this period, specific videos began to appear online, such as Group-Buy Delivery riders playing piano in malls, helping users code, assisting masters with excavators, helping foreigners order in English, and aiding DJs in bars, effectively demonstrating talents among the people.

Then everyone noticed the Group-Buy Delivery riders recently started wearing helmets with little yellow ears which looked adorable.

Many people captured photos of randomly encountered Group-Buy Delivery riders and casually uploaded them online.

This subtle promotion gradually started upgrading the riders’ image in the consumer’s mind to taller and more relatable.

The rate of bad reviews for Group-Buy riders even dropped to a minimal number.

There were those previously who wanted to moonlight as delivery riders but were afraid of being ridiculed; this sentiment gradually faded with the tidal wave of public opinion.

As now everyone knew that a delivery person might just be a master.

For those in the internet business sector, what they saw was not a delivery rider but Group-Buy unilaterally declaring victory in the competition.

The battle is still ongoing, and the pace of penetration is accelerating, yet the opponent has begun leisurely drawing Peppa Pig on their gun barrels. Isn’t the outcome obvious?

Group-Buy shifted its business focus to brand promotion and business development, clearly no longer viewing Hunger No More as a competitor.

This approach of “Hidden dragons” and “Little ears” marketing has once again proven the old saying.

Jiang Qin is indeed a legend in marketing.

Yet, Zhang Xuhao’s team has not conceded; they still wanted to secure another round of funding to counterattack.

Alibaba was now reluctant to support Hunger No More’s spending wars, mainly because Mr. Ma feared Group-Buy’s supply chain “forcefully borrowing money” to expand nationwide.

Without Alibaba’s support, Hunger No More still had its second shareholder, Tencent.

Consequently, on the day of finishing summer retreat, Zhang Xuhao and his team visited Shanghai to meet with Peng Sheng, Tencent’s investment manager, hoping to secure another round of funding.

“President Zhang, I can’t decide on increasing investment myself, especially since Hunger No More’s recent development hasn’t been optimistic.”

“That’s because we underestimated the competition, but we haven’t been without gains. At the very least, I’ve now understood Jiang Qin’s strategy.”

Peng Sheng twitched at the corner of his mouth: “You’ve underestimated the competition three times with Group-Buy’s entrance, rider subsidies battle, and market subsidies war.”

Zhang Xuhao displayed a sincere expression: “President Peng, Hunger No More has withstood Group-Buy’s pursuit for a year. That’s our strength. During the initial group buying wars, who else lasted as long against Group-Buy as Hunger No More has?”

“Alright, President Zhang, I’ll go back and consult our boss, then I’ll let you know.”

“…”

Without even displaying the next development plan PowerPoint, Peng Sheng persuaded Zhang Xuhao to leave.

Watching the Hunger No More team depart, Peng Sheng muttered with a smile, once it had been said strong contenders talk about strength, but now even lasting long seems a mark of strength…

But the key issue is not that Hunger No More lasted long; it’s the policy that saved them.

Peng Sheng also attended the conference held in Shanghai. There, he listened to a senior official responsible for market supervision announcing that the internet is not beyond the law and that anti-monopoly laws tailored for the internet along with other regulations would be introduced soon.

Otherwise, with Group-Buy single-handedly going after Public Review, Lashou, Sticky Rice Delivery, and WoWo with such force, how could Hunger No More still have held onto 32% of the market share.

President Zhang, you really caught a good timing.

Throwing away his paper cup into the trash, Peng Sheng encountered Liu Zhongping from Tencent Video on his way back; they exchanged a glance and nodded at each other.

Actually, when Alibaba suddenly became a major shareholder of Hunger No More, Tencent also had plans to increase its stake, mainly to compete with Alibaba.

At that time, Hunger No More’s market share was comparable to that of Group-Buy, making it a valuable investment.

But as Hunger No More continued to face setbacks, that investment became irrelevant, and the money was taken by Tencent Video instead.

After the development conference, the entire business community was prepared for the 4G era, with Tencent Video being an essential part of this strategy.

Everyone knew that 4G is the era of video; a company named iQiyi just entered its angel round and raised 2.8 billion—Alibaba was also interested in Youku. Tencent, of course, couldn’t fall behind.

With the video race heating up, all major players like BAT gathered—Peng Sheng couldn’t help but wonder if Group-Buy would make a move.

But this thought scared Peng Sheng immediately.

Joking, how could Group-Buy stand alongside BAT?

Right…?

Yet, in reality, Group-Buy had just held a meeting about a video project, but its direction was different from the three big companies.

Zhihu and Tonight’s Headlines’ video sections were already updated, adding video upload features to the creator backend along with incentives and traffic support, nearly establishing an ecosystem.

Without intentional guidance, the video area featured a diverse range of content quality.

To generate more traffic, they planned some dance videos in black stockings, Hanfu, JK outfits… starting out as a sweet surprise, setting an example for creators, and these videos were not surprisingly a hit.

This proved the old sleazebag’s art would never have a viewing threshold.

As the president of Group-Buy, Jiang Qin would often delve into being a regular producer in the dance video team.

He said he liked engaging with frontline staff on a personal level.

“Our videos can only be fifteen seconds long. Doesn’t this restrict the creators too much? It feels like nothing can be conveyed in this duration.”

“Fifteen seconds is enough. We want videos that can capture attention instantly within the shortest time.”

Zhihu and Tonight’s Headlines’ videos were restricted to fifteen seconds, a firm rule Jiang Qin established when he officially launched the “TikTok Plan.”

This requirement puzzled many staff from the content department as they were used to watching series with over forty episodes or movies lasting more than an hour and a half. They struggled to understand the commercial value of fifteen-second videos.

However, there was a creed within Group-Buy: the boss’s decision is always right.

If it was wrong, then the world must be out of sorts.

Due to the large internal doubts, occasionally raising these doubts was not conducive to work, so Jiang Qin organized a meeting specifically to discuss fifteen-second videos.

A movie that had just been released this year called “Lost in Thailand” achieved a box office of 1.2 billion, and Jiang Qin particularly used this film as a demonstration for them.

“Watch closely. This man is called Little Handsome and loves making scallion pancakes…”

“…”

After a while, the content department’s staff blinked and suddenly realized that fifteen-second videos could indeed do a lot of interesting content.

Jiang Qin sat at the front of the meeting room, turned his body, and spoke: “In the coming years, as the internet develops further, people will have more avenues to receive information. Those who can’t capture user attention in the quickest available time will be eliminated because the future market will undoubtedly be a battle against time.”

“Why did Weibo manage to displace blogs? Because it’s shorter and faster.”

“The workplace is becoming increasingly competitive, and everyone’s lives are getting busier. Who has the time to watch TV dramas anymore? Therefore, fifteen seconds that allow everyone a break moment to watch a complete short video is our development strategy.”

“Imagine, you willingly work overtime late into the night, refusing taxi fare and overtime pay, then return home feeling fully accomplished. Would you still want to turn on the TV, following a drama until midnight?”

“No, you’d turn on short videos happily scrolling through dozens of 15-second clips, then go to sleep with the pleasant thought of another workday tomorrow.”

“The next day, as you comfortably take the subway, eager to contribute to the company, and you can’t even complete a movie during your commute, what would you do?”

“Exactly, you’d opt to open short videos.”

“You have a two-hour lunch break, spending time eating, going to the restroom, and taking a nap to recharge for your favorite job. How would you utilize these fragmented moments?”

“Watch a TV show? Scroll through a variety show?”

“No, because you can’t finish them, you’d still end up opening short videos.”

“Besides, judging by the nature of the three major telecom operators, even if they say they’d greatly reduce data prices, would you really be willing to use your data watching a full TV show?”

Hearing this, the staff in the meeting room fell eerily silent.

They now understood the rationale behind short videos, but where to find such hopeful, fulfilling jobs?

Jiang Qin continued with his fingers pointed: “Eating, leisure, or waiting while your goddess takes a shower—everyone has numerous fragmented moments. We want these because the future of internet business won’t be about the number of users but about user engagement time.”

The content team on-site began writing in their notebooks.

“With larger mobile storage, any app can be installed. I can use WeChat, check Weibo, shop online, watch videos, and then the app that gets users to open it most frequently wins.”

“This is the core growth idea of the TikTok Plan.”

“We’ll also engage in medium or long videos later, but remember, the core of the TikTok Plan will always be to occupy more user time under the guise of saving user time.”

“The longer the user engagement time, the more monetization opportunities, the greater the commercial value, so we need our videos to be brief but spectacular.”

Jiang Qin finished speaking, tapped the table: “Get to work.”

As his voice fell, the content team in charge of the TikTok Plan all stood, no longer having any doubts.

From 2012 to 2014, video websites rapidly developed with iQiyi among the frontrunners, but long videos held no interest for Jiang Qin.

He aimed to move ahead early, setting up a mature short-video business model and using traffic to build the entire Group-Buy network.