Chapter 56: 055 Towering

On August 17th, Yu Xing received Song Yufeng's report regarding offline advertising: one piece of good news and one piece of bad news.

The good news: Song Yufeng had indeed done his utmost to plaster the advertisements across certain specific areas.

The bad news: These advertisements had, without exception, been cleared away to varying degrees.

No, it couldn't be called clearing; it was even, to a certain extent, destruction.

Besides seeing the advertisements that had been covered up, Yu Xing also saw damaged bus stop signs.

He pointed at a rather conspicuous photo and asked, "The others I can let slide, but this is illegal, right? Damaging public property—shouldn't we call the police?"

"They'll probably take a report, but who knows if it'll be any use," Song Yufeng glanced at it and said. "The probability of it just being left unsettled is high."

Yu Xing pondered, "This won't do. We paid money; these ads need to have an effect. We still need to keep exposing the company name. Also, have someone take more photos of this kind of destruction; later, I'll post them all on the campus network."

Song Yufeng sat down, wiped his sweat, and asked, "Are we still doing that NetEase routine?"

Yu Xing shook his head. "No, the nature is different. That NetEase thing was mainly you guys reporting first after interviewing first. Right now, this is just industry competition. Your previous situation was more malicious and also quite rare, unlike this, which is relatively common."

He continued, "However, even though it's ordinary commercial competition, taking it to the college student demographic can still refresh everyone's perception and help us get more traffic. Recently, online traffic has already been falling."

Yu Xing intended to put this kind of encounter online in a more mocking way, rather than the formal denunciation used previously.

"You're not even angry? When I first got the call, I felt really frustrated," Song Yufeng said, looking Yu Xing over carefully and resentfully. "This is a legal matter we spent money on. I've heard of the 'three responsibilities' for storefronts, but never that you have to be responsible for the ads in front of them too. If they don't like people advertising in front of their place, then they should buy it all up."

Yu Xing nodded slightly. "That's the logic, but..."

There was no need to say the rest; it had already been done.

Song Yufeng still said with some indignation, "They're a big company in the industry, at least; is this how they play? If they have the ability, they should just go and snatch all of Gui'ai Net's clients!"

Yu Xing comforted him, "Don't worry, they will try to snatch them."

Song Yufeng: "Uh..."

Yu Xing flipped through the situation of the ad placements again, shook his head, and sighed, "This is competition; this is profit. So, within a certain scope, neither side should talk down to the other."

"General Manager Yu, do you have an idea?" Song Yufeng caught the underlying meaning.

"There isn't much of a way. Our own business promotion has already exhausted our energy; what can we use to fight big companies? This time was just to build presence in front of them," Yu Xing said calmly. "Starting from such a goal, perhaps it was completed quite well."

He felt that Song Yufeng still had ability; he had been able to spread the ads to those locations in a short time.

Song Yufeng let out an "um," thinking left and right, but indeed, there was no particularly good way to respond.

He took a sip of water, and only then did he mention the other piece of news: "General Manager Yu, there's an opportunity next month for you to go on stage and give a speech."

Yu Xing was taken aback, knowing Song Yufeng was talking about the Jin Ling Internet Conference.

He asked in surprise, "Let me go on stage to speak? What am I..."

This year was the seventh China Internet Conference. Besides representatives from the internet industry, there would also be leaders from relevant departments. And since it was chosen to be held at the Jin Ling International Expo Center this year, it might be even more grand.

Song Yufeng chuckled, "It's not certain yet. If you can go up, it will definitely be in the capacity of a college student entrepreneur. You have to write the draft in advance. I can only say, try your best; I can't guarantee anything at all."

He thought for a moment and explained, "Besides the big shots, they have to have some small fry go up, too, right? That's the only way to provide contrast."

Yu Xing lit a cigarette. "Small fry is also fine. If there are people from Century Jiayuan, Zhen'ai Net, or Baihe Net attending, maybe we can chat. Tsk, can you get the list of attending guests?"

"It doesn't seem to be fully finalized yet. Even if it is, it's hard to say whether they'll attend or not," Song Yufeng said. "I feel that even if they don't all come, at least one or two will. After all, they can look for cooperation opportunities."

Yu Xing nodded and said sincerely, "Thank you, Brother Feng. Regardless of whether I can go up or not, thank you, Brother Feng!"

Song Yufeng accepted the thanks and covered his face again. "This time, I've even thrown away my face to beg for you."

Yu Xing was just about to thank him again when he saw him put his hand down.

"But, so what if I throw away my face? I'm not a reporter anymore anyway," Song Yufeng pointed at the photos on the table. "Do they want face? They don't want it either. Everyone is like this."

Yu Xing smiled.

Song Yufeng immediately said again, "General Manager Yu, 'those matters'..."

He was also straightforward; after finishing what he had done over the past few days, he immediately brought up the topic they hadn't finished discussing last time.

"How to operate a workplace paparazzi website? I think we can refer to those gossip magazines," Yu Xing was equally unhesitating, as if it were a transaction of money for goods. "There must be gossip; it must be able to attract the onlookers."

Song Yufeng listened earnestly.

Yu Xing pointed at the photos on the table. "Once Gui'ai Net is sold, I actually think we might as well start with these matchmaking websites."

Song Yufeng perked up and asked respectfully, "General Manager Yu, what do you mean?"

"I've been studying the models of Century Jiayuan, Zhen'ai Net, and the like these past two days," Yu Xing said earnestly. "I think it's very inappropriate. Brother Feng, you haven't used this kind of website, have you?"

Seeing Song Yufeng nod, he continued, "How do they make a profit? Um, besides charging membership fees, they also charge all sorts of inexplicable fees. For example, charging to view a woman's profile, charging to chat. What is this model called..."

Yu Xing pondered slightly and said, "This model uses the method of blocking communication to charge fees. It faces people who are older and in a rush to get married. Moreover, whether online or offline, they are making KPIs around the matching rate. Do you know what this means?"

Song Yufeng was still chewing on "blocking communication." Hearing this, he said somewhat blankly, "What does this mean?"

"In order to complete the KPI, in order to push up the matching rate, concealment and deception will inevitably appear," Yu Xing said faintly. "I am a matchmaker; I want to get a bonus; I'm still one order short. As long as I slightly conceal some kind of flaw in the woman or the man, the pair in front of me is made. Do you think such a situation will occur?"

Song Yufeng was stunned. He looked at the destroyed advertisement on the table. Behavior within the commercial scope... it definitely would!

"I've been pondering their situation these past two days, searching for their information, and I happened to see that last year, one company announced that the online matchmaking industry has the highest user payment rate among all subdivided internet industries, once reaching nearly 80 percent," Yu Xing shrugged. "That is truly too high."

"But the online matchmaking industry has actually been growing very fast these past few years. This growth momentum gives people in this industry an illusion; they think they have a massive amount of users and data, and it seems they can use a system to replace the process of familiarity and adjustment between men and women."

"The more I look and ponder, the more I feel that such an industry sometimes doesn't need to be too 'internet-ized.' If it's really pushed like this, the deception inside actually increases."

Yu Xing looked at Song Yufeng and said, "Therefore, the first piece of gossip for 'those matters' can be us bombarding internet matchmaking companies that carry a deceptive nature. And as long as we can create influence, I believe those who have been deceived will also come out to testify."

Song Yufeng was taken aback. "Ah?"

Yu Xing asked, "Is something wrong?"

Song Yufeng let out two "uhs" and couldn't help but say, "General Manager Yu, do you want to destroy the internet matchmaking industry?"

Wasn't this a bit too dark!

First sell the company to an internet matchmaking company, then turn around and bombard these companies for having all kinds of deceptive practices in their business. If quite a few victims really stand up upon hearing the news, I'm afraid the already sensitive link of trust will slide significantly.

If internet matchmaking brands, or even the industry, don't have user trust, how can subsequent business be carried out?

Destroying the industry might be a bit alarmist, but perhaps it really would regress.

Yu Xing pressed one hand on the table. "Who told them to tear up our ads?"

Song Yufeng: "..."

Yu Xing sighed, "If an industry can be easily destroyed by a small character like me, then it proves that it actually doesn't have much meaning for existence."

Song Yufeng was almost persuaded by this statement.

He finally asked, "President Yu, will it be a bit dangerous to do it this way?"

Yu Xing said, "Are hard bones afraid of this?"

Song Yufeng's hard bones suddenly felt a bit like softening back.

Yu Xing said earnestly, "I think such a company has a great chance of succeeding. When that time comes, you can complete a magnificent transformation from behind the lens to in front of the lens, and you can also be interviewed by Penguin, and just call that Kong Huilin again."

Song Yufeng nodded slowly; if you don't enter the tiger's den, how can you get the tiger's cub? Hard bones should stand up and earn money!