Chapter 532: If You're Popular, Who Else Would They Scold?

Douyin needs some time before it can be put on the market, and it still needs final testing and user-experience feedback—software like this always has dedicated experience officers to test and improve it.

Once it's about ready, it will be released to the market to face the market's test. Only after hundreds of millions of people keep giving feedback, and after market competition, can a Douyin emerge that no one else can copy.

Although he was the one who proposed developing this, the original development team for Douyin stays the same. There are only a handful of Douyin founders—Zhang Yiming, Zhang Nan, Han Shangyou, and the like.

These people all hold important positions at Chang'e Technology now, and after being tempered by the development of Bilibili, Today's Headlines, Chang'e Video, and other software, they've grown increasingly mature.

Only Zhou Shouzi didn't come—he's at Xiaomi now, and he's a really impressive guy.

The later Chief Executive Officer of TikTok was him.

But Fang Hong isn't in a hurry either; Chang'e Technology still needs to settle in now—it can't just explode out of the gate.

All he has to do is get the funding in place and build out the infrastructure. Once Douyin goes online, the Data Center will have to be put on the agenda.

At that point it won't be like Bilibili or Today's Headlines with tens of millions of daily active users, where the Data Center not being enough could be solved by renting servers.

Daily active users in the hundreds of millions, all streaming video—the data volume is truly massive.

This Internet Conference ended, and the meeting won't have much of an impact on the current development of the internet.

Everyone just keeps developing the way they were, keeps doing what they were doing—no big changes.

It's nothing more than everyone getting together to mingle, having this kind of conference to show off the industry's prosperity. Anyway, from now on there will be more and more such meetings.

The feeling among Wangyi and the public will only be pride and a sense of pride—our country has grown stronger again. These past few years have been years that boost the people's confidence; that sense of confidence is going to overflow.

Otherwise there wouldn't be a super-hit mainstream-values film like Wolf Warrior 2.

Mainstream-values films will be the type that best guarantees box office going forward. Other films might lose money, but this type doesn't lose money easily.

This is decided by the overall environment and can't be changed.

Time rolled into December. This month there's a The Empress of China that caught fire before it even aired—it's a big production marking Fan Xiaopang's return to the TV drama field after several years.

The previous one was My Love from the Star, a TV drama made in cooperation with Yutu, and that drama made a killing.

But The Empress of China is different from the earlier My Love from the Star—this TV drama is a big female-lead production tailor-made for Fan Xiaopang.

It airs this month and has already been hyped up to a fever pitch.

In these two months Yutu hasn't produced any decent TV dramas, only things like Dream Partners, Go! Goal! Shoot!, and The Heirs from the Stars.

The latter two are web dramas; the first is a web-and-TV simulcast.

Naturally, dramas like these can't compete with The Empress of China—big production, big stars, no comparison.

But this is fine too, as long as new content keeps coming out and a sense of freshness is maintained. And right now Keep Running is already a massive hit.

Many viewers go to Chang'e Video to watch this Variety show because they can see previous episodes there.

What people watch TV dramas for is the stars and the production scale—as long as the plot is passable, that's enough.

How many viewers actually remember a TV drama's director? They all remember the stars on top—act well enough and that's fine.

And among TV drama stars, it's usually the actresses who tend to blow up; male stars are actually a bit weaker. This is decided by the consumer audience—because the ones watching TV dramas are either girls or married women.

Just like Fang Hong's mom—she loves watching those idol dramas, while Fang Hong himself doesn't really watch TV dramas.

Sometimes when Liu Tianxian is in the mood she'll watch too—that's the audience.

In January there'll be a My Sunshine that hits theaters.

This one is built on the foundation of the earlier Boss & Me, and it's also a finely produced TV drama.

The male lead of My Sunshine isn't Zhong Hanliang—it's given to Huang Xuan. That guy is too old; Huang Xuan right now is only around thirty, which is just right.

His acting is fine too—no one can say it's worse than that guy's.

This year, besides Zhao Xiaodao and Chen Xiao continuously blowing up, Nazha also showed her talent and blew up thanks to Gu Jian Qi Tan and Xiu Chun Dao.

The reason she blew up is the Variety show Keep Running—she's the only female lead, her resources are absurdly good, and there's a faint sense that she's poised to fight Zhao Xiaodao for the top-sister spot.

Keep Running Season 1 has now aired up to episode nine and still holds the number-one spot in ratings.

Online views have also broken 3.5 billion.

Now Chang'e Technology isn't using that "multiply by ten" thing Fang Hong used before—it's still using real data.

That multiplier was too exaggerated—doing it that way would already be 35 billion. If one person clicking one episode counts as one, it can still stack up; there's no need to use a method like that, which looks fake at a glance.

Nazha's blow-up this year and her great resources have made Zhao Xiaodao very unhappy when she looks at her—she didn't expect this girl to rise so fast.

Totally normal—Nazha's face is just too distinctive!

She thought Liu Tianxian was the threat, but it turned out to be Nazha, whom she once looked down on.

Because Nazha is too popular, she's also getting scolded more and more fiercely by Wangyi. She's always been getting scolded, but this time she's so popular that she's been made to cry several times.

Nazha had no choice. Sniffling, she went to her manager Huang Bing to complain: "Why are all those people cursing me?"

"You're popular—if we don't scold you, who would we scold? So many people want to be scolded and can't even get scolded. Being scolded proves you're popular. Just take it, get through this critical moment, and it'll be fine." Huang Bing comforted her.

The last one who came to him to complain was Zhao Xiaodao. Now Zhao Xiaodao's mindset has adjusted a lot better—she knows this is unavoidable.

Any star who just blew up has to go through this kind of process.

"But but, they're scolding me to death, especially on Weibo—the scolding is really nasty." Nazza said, her nose red from crying.

Those people were calling her a "chicken" and cursing her whole family to die—too hateful.

"Don't read those comments scolding you. Read more of the nice ones. If you have to, just close comments on Weibo—out of sight, out of mind." Huang Bing found this girl's psychological resilience a bit weak.

Zhao Xiaodao, although she complained back then, didn't really cry.

"Wuu wuu wuu" Nazha kept crying pitifully, leaving Huang Bing with no choice. He handed her tissues and gestured for her to wipe her face.

Actually, the public opinion Nazha is facing is still mild—because there's Yutu Public Relations. In her past life, that was truly scolding from every direction.

Rivals calling her out by name—now they all fear the Principal, so not many people are going after Nazha.

Nazha, nose running, blew her nose and wiped her face. Good thing she was born beautiful, otherwise this image would be unbearable to look at.

"A-and also, Sister Zhao keeps targeting me." Nazha said, choking back tears.

Zhao Xiaodao used to be really nice to her, always caring about her, but recently she's been giving her cold looks and saying bad things about her.

Totally normal—she's become a threat.

"It's fine, I'll talk to her. Don't cry, go home and rest for a few days." Huang Bing soothed Nazha's emotions, then saw her out the door.

He sighed inwardly—these kids were hard to manage; cry at the slightest scolding, then come straight to him with complaints.

Huang Bing called Zhao Xiaodao in and got straight to the point: "Don't hold any grudge against Nazha. She's on the idol path; you're on the talent path. Your routes are different—what's there to compete over?"

Nazha can follow the fashion route, the idol-fan route—she might have some competition with Liu Tianxian, but Zhao Xiaodao's slight frame simply can't compete; her sense of fashion is terrible.

"Manager Huang, you've misunderstood—I don't hold any resentment toward her," Zhao Xiaodao denied.

To admit it would mean disunity, lack of camaraderie—we're all from the same company. She never expected Nazha would run straight to complain; she's just too naive.

At least fight a little, compete a little!

Complaining proves Nazha doesn't want to compete with you. Truly strong people, ambitious people, don't complain—they confront you directly.

Like Fan Xiaopang and Li Bailian back at Huayi—they fought to the death.

Nazha is like this: she has no ambition, no desire to compete with Zhao Xiaodao for top female lead. She just wants a job, to earn money—that's all. She doesn't aim for anything grand.

"Better not. But let me make this clear: your resources have never been cut off—they're saturated. You've been given more than you can handle, yet you remain a key talent the company is cultivating. Don't start internal competition just because someone's rising. There's truly no need."

"You don't need to fear Liu Tianxian either—she only does movies; she's never touched TV dramas or Variety. You know this." Huang Bing knew what she was thinking but didn't spell it out—just making it clear was enough.

Liu Tianxian truly poses no threat to Zhao Xiaodao, because Liu Tianxian never touches TV dramas, and now she only does one movie a year.

Zhao Xiaodao's ability and status simply can't reach movie roles—no other reason, she can't carry one. She knows this well.

Not just her—among today's female actors in film and TV, not one can carry a movie. Even if you brought in Guoji Zhang, Fan Xiaopang, or Li Bailian, they couldn't either.

Don't be fooled by their big names—they still flop when they appear in movies, no exceptions.

Only Bai Baihe shows signs of being able to carry one.

Zhao Xiaodao understood all this. She said: "I understand, Manager Huang. It's my fault. I'll go talk to Nazha."

"Good. Go then!" Huang Bing gestured.

Zhao Xiaodao had feared being sidelined, replaced. Since there was no such threat, there was no need to target anyone.

In truth, every entertainment company has this issue—but smaller companies insist on splitting up their top male and female stars. At Yutu, it's unnecessary.

Given Yutu's current scale, it can fully cultivate multiple stars, and its resources can fully support multiple stars—there's no need for internal competition.

After leaving the office, Zhao Xiaodao found Nazha. Seeing her back, her shoulders rose and fell as if deeply saddened, on the verge of tears.

Her Assistant stood beside her, comforting her, handing out tissues.

"Zazha." Zhao Xiaodao walked over.

Nazha turned around, saw Zhao Xiaodao, and replied: "Sister Zhao."

She lowered her head slightly, appearing timid, lacking confidence.

Zhao Xiaodao signaled the Assistant to step back a little—she wanted to speak with Nazha alone.

The Assistant, perceptive, left immediately.

"Earlier, I was in a bad mood and may have been harsh toward you. I apologize. Don't take it to heart," Zhao Xiaodao said softly.

"Oh, Sister Zhao, you know about it?" Nazha meant her complaint.

"Next time, if you have an issue, just come straight to me. No need to go to Manager Huang," Zhao Xiaodao said with a gentle smile.

"I-I'm sorry—I didn't mean to complain about you," Nazha said, her face still tinged with shame at Zhao Xiaodao's expression.

She felt she shouldn't have gone to Manager Huang to complain.

"It's fine, it's fine." Zhao Xiaodao hadn't expected Nazha to be so easily comforted—she was calmed in an instant.

She smiled again: "Come to my place tonight. Let's have a drink. You drink, right?"

"Of course I do. We've had drinks together at company gatherings plenty of times—you forgot?" Nazha's mood improved a little.

Most stars can drink.

"No, I was just afraid you wouldn't drink with a girl—you'd rather drink with guys," Zhao Xiaodao chuckled.

"What? Am I really that shallow?" Nazha pouted.

"How would I know?" Zhao Xiaodao teased.

"Ah!" Nazha stuck out her lip, cheeks flushed.

This was easy to resolve—once spoken, it was gone. It wasn't a big deal to begin with, and Nazha wasn't one to hold grudges; her guard was low.

(End of Chapter)