Chapter 300: The First Weibo Goddess: The Spring Festival Blockbuster Launches

Zhichun Road, Weibo Conference Room

The head of the operations department reported to Seeing Yan Li: "Our online and offline promotional campaigns are proceeding smoothly, and the Hundred Stars onboarding initiative is in full swing."

"As of 10 a. m. today, Weibo's registered users have surpassed 50,000."

"Over forty celebrities have been verified; we're still contacting others, and we expect at least 100 to 150 more to be verified and post their first Weibo within the next two days."

"While verifying celebrities, we've also targeted their personal tieba, fan groups, blogs, and other fan hubs to drive traffic."

"Last night, we also reached out to multiple media outlets and portal sites to widely promote the Hundred Stars onboarding."

"…"

Seeing Yan Li listened intently; the celebrity strategy sounded simple, but it wasn't just about bringing people over.

You have to leverage each celebrity's influence—targeted traffic driving, promotional emphasis on platform impact—in short, make the most of this opportunity to make the outside world and the public aware of Weibo as quickly as possible.

Currently, there are more than just Weibo and Fanfou as microblogging platforms; there's also Taotao under Tencent.

Fanfou follows an elite path; its users are mostly niche circles and university students, winning through content, but its scale is tiny.

Tencent's Taotao has a sizable user base; Tencent's traffic pool is too powerful—various pop-up recommendations brought in over 100,000+ registered users on day one.

But Tencent didn't execute Taotao well—no content, no distinctive features, and overshadowed by its elder brother QQ Space; despite its size, its momentum is actually weaker than Fanfou's high user engagement and stickiness.

Weibo's strategy of targeting celebrities and public figures is something Fanfou and Tencent simply cannot or find extremely difficult to achieve.

Forget Fanfou—it's a startup with zero access to celebrity resources.

Tencent may be powerful, but most of its current business areas have no connection to the entertainment industry; to launch a celebrity strategy, it would have to throw money around—and even then, results are uncertain.

So, under conditions of not burning cash recklessly, the only ones who can pressure Seeing Yan Li in the realm of celebrities and public figures.

Are Sina and Sohu!

Both started as portal websites, later expanded into blogs; Sohu even launched a video site. Over the years, they've come to represent new media to some extent, having cultivated extensive networks of celebrities and public figures.

Other internet companies, including Tencent, also have such resources, but due to later entry or insufficient emphasis, they're inferior to these two.

At least for Seeing Yan Li, this entertainment tycoon, he'll focus solely on Sina and Sohu in the short term.

Weibo has just started and hasn't yet shown much brilliance; everyone is still observing.

Sohu's attention leans more toward today's hot trend—video websites—while Sina is somewhat intrigued; internally, they've considered microblogging, but their size makes turning the ship difficult.

Sina Blog is currently the most popular blog platform, thriving with abundant internal resources and vested interests; it's impossible for a new Weibo to immediately shake their corporate strategy.

Seeing Yan Li estimates that even if Sina immediately prepares a Sina Weibo, it won't allocate full resources—and there may even be friction between Sina Blog and Sina Weibo internally.

By the time Sina realizes Weibo will replace blogs and become the dominant trend, and finally commits to developing Sina Weibo.

Seeing Yan Li's Weibo will have accumulated sufficient first-mover advantage!

After silently listening to all the reports, Seeing Yan Li spoke: "The Hundred Stars onboarding is unquestionably the biggest traffic magnet so far—dig deep and spread wide; exploit this card fully and thoroughly."

"Don't slack off on online and offline promotions; though the effects aren't as dramatic as the Hundred Stars, it's a steady, long-term opportunity for publicity and momentum."

"Later, we must also carefully plan the onboarding of the Hundred Celebrities, Hundred Enterprises, Hundred Institutions—though their influence may not match the Hundred Stars, they greatly enhance Weibo's usability and value."

"By the Spring Festival, in roughly two months, I don't care what methods you use—get our registered users to over one million."

If you're short on users, fake the data—in this industry, you can't tell a compelling story without a million users.

Weibo is currently hiding one card that hasn't been played yet: Seeing Yan Li himself.

As a highly prominent new business magnate, he can bring traffic to JD. com; naturally, he can bring traffic to Weibo too.

So Seeing Yan Li will bind Weibo to his own persona, telling the story of Weibo alongside his own story—not just to investors, but to the public—to dramatically amplify Weibo's influence.

But storytelling requires timing; Weibo has just started, and for Seeing Yan Li to appear now would be meaningless—it might turn Weibo into his personal website.

So wait. Wait until Weibo has achieved tangible results and influence, then Seeing Yan Li emerges to add fuel, making Weibo burn even brighter.

Afterwards, Seeing Yan Li held a special meeting with the content department.

If content isn't handled well, no matter how many people you attract, you won't retain them—it's all wasted.

So Seeing Yan Li placed special emphasis on content: even if traffic growth is slow, it's acceptable; a single explosive event can quickly draw in a massive wave of users.

Meanwhile, content also enhances user stickiness and loyalty—even if competitors emerge, they won't be able to lure users away.

"This photography and literature contest is still too niche, lacks topic buzz—go for something explosive, popular, and highly participatory."

Currently, Weibo's content mainly comes from user posts and interactions, news reposts, and these small events and contests.

Seeing Yan Li reviewed them—there was some effect, but not enough.

"Plan two major campaigns: one tied to the Spring Festival film season—criticize movies, compare box office figures, conduct interviews with creators; anything related to Spring Festival films, put it up—even if other platforms have good posts, copy them and post them under our account."

"The other is a beauty pageant—our current users are mostly entertainment fans; give them something to do: launch a 'First Weibo Goddess' election, following the World Cup format—open auditions, group eliminations, finally selecting one winner, and we'll award her."

"First select women, then men—not just goddesses and gods, also sub-categories like 'Four Ancient Beauties' or 'Four Republican Young Masters.'"

"Don't hold them all at once; space them out, select periodically, then heavily promote each winner—solidify the title; the louder their fame, the more Weibo benefits."

"…"

Seeing Yan Li's move is a later-generation internet wisdom—well, strictly speaking, this tactic has existed for a long time; Xiangjiang used to play it often.

But old tactics don't matter as long as they work—fans compete fiercely, bystanders flock to the spectacle, and Weibo gains traffic.

The content team scribbled notes furiously; this beauty pageant definitely has potential.

One vote per user per day—users will have to vote daily; invite a new user and give them an extra vote—it'll help drive traffic too.

Then set up a voting zone with a topic square for discussion and arguments, even let the contestants themselves campaign—this will boost both the hype and activity.

"But, Boss Yan, isn't this going to offend some people?"

Leading the charge, riding on celebrities' popularity—some will inevitably feel uncomfortable.

Seeing Yan Li looked at the one who raised the objection: "If you're afraid of offending people, then stop everything—pack your bags and disband."

So what if we offend people?

Weibo is a public opinion platform—won't there be plenty more offenses in the future?

Once Weibo is built up, especially these celebrities—they'll all have to bow to Weibo's authority. So what if we offend people?

Moreover, this event may have ridden on the hype, but it also gave exposure—everyone wins; if you didn't win, blame your own low popularity and ugly face.

These days, being a nice guy won't make you money, let alone becoming a big shot.

With Seeing Yan Li's words, the content team grew even more excited—they weren't afraid of offending someone, but of facing negative fallout that might get them shut down or made to take the blame.

Now that the boss has spoken up to back them, they could go all out; they were all veterans of the internet, and stoking the flames was their forte.

"Let me reiterate: offending people isn't a problem—I've got your back—but absolutely avoid sensitive content, and strictly guard against certain remarks; sensitive keywords must be updated in real time, no room for carelessness."

Seeing Yan Li was very serious: some people he could afford to offend, others he couldn't.

An unregulated or loosely monitored public opinion platform is terrifying—Fanfou died because of this.

From the very founding of Weibo, Seeing Yan Li had repeatedly emphasized the need to uphold the red line.

He would rather Weibo become a mouthpiece in some people's eyes than a gathering place for rebels.

If Weibo failed, Seeing Yan Li had other businesses—but if Weibo "failed," he'd be in trouble…

…

After the meeting, Seeing Yan Li went to Weibo's office; as a startup, this office was much smaller than his other offices.

Less than ten square meters, it was nearly full with just a desk, a bookshelf, two sofas, and even the coffee table was small.

Oddly enough, being in such a small office stirred Seeing Yan Li's drive to "conquer the world."

Many entrepreneurs aren't short on money, yet they keep working—not just for the thrill of being the boss and calling the shots, but for the satisfaction of building something successful.

The feeling of giving birth to a massive company from your own hands is wonderful.

He pulled out his phone, walked to the door, took a photo of the office, then posted his first official Weibo since registering.

【New Weibo, new beginning!】

Seeing Yan Li's Weibo account was certainly among the very first ever created—he got it before Weibo even launched.

The avatar was Weibo's logo: a simple, abstracted tech-blue waveform pattern, symbolizing the posting, spreading, and connection of Weibo's information.

This was the design he personally approved after multiple proposals—simple, memorable, and highlighting the key selling point.

Behind the avatar was a golden V mark—the official Weibo verification; individuals used yellow V, enterprises and institutions used blue V, distinguishing them from regular accounts and preventing impersonation.

The name was simply 【Seeing Yan Li】—and beneath it, the bio or official verification text was equally simple.

【Merchant, actor, employed by Weibo, Yi'an Film & Television, Yi'an Cinema Chain; representative works: The Legend of Xue Rengui, Emperor Wu of Han, Sword of Light…】

His followers were already numerous—perhaps Weibo had given him a recommendation slot—his follower count had already surpassed 2,000.

The number of people he followed was small—only a few Weibo executives. Seeing Yan Li simply began following back acquaintances among his followers, while observing their Weibos.

Fan Xiaopang was among the first to join; she had high fame and popularity, and was one of his own people—making her a key target for Weibo's promotion. Her follower count was now nearing 5,000.

Although she had only just joined Weibo, Fan Xiaopang had already posted two or three Weibos.

The first was a somewhat official greeting, the second a selfie, and the third asking followers and passersby to follow her, adding that she'd be active on Weibo and so on.