Reborn in 08, a heretical cultivator starting a business

Chapter 232 Heaven Helps Ali, Wang Junshan in a Dilemma?

"Chairman, WeChat has launched version 3.0, which includes a microblogging feature similar to Twitter!"

Ning Fengze excitedly rushed to Jack Ma's office.

Jack Ma was in high spirits: "I understand. I must say, Wang Junshan is truly a talent. He manages to make Weibo and WeChat seem independent yet closely integrated, allowing them to exchange information. He's a real genius."

Ning Fengze found it hard to disagree: "Yes, although Weibo is built into WeChat 3.0 on PC, it's actually just an icon. You access Weibo through the browser built into WeChat 3.0."

"You can log in to Weibo with WeChat with one click, but you can also change your nickname."

"You can recommend your Weibo posts to your WeChat friends, or you can block your WeChat friends."

"This allows Weibo to leverage WeChat to grow rapidly, increase users and traffic, while maintaining its ecosystem independence. It complements WeChat's shortcomings in social networking among acquaintances without breaking the limitations of WeChat's social networking among acquaintances."

"It can be said that a perfect balance has been achieved."

Jack Ma nodded: "Yes, WeChat focuses on social networking among acquaintances, while Weibo focuses on open social networking. Now we are working closely together, using WeChat's 1.3 million monthly active users to drive the development of Weibo."

"In the future, Weibo will definitely become completely independent."

"That's right. In fact, Weibo is now independent. On PC, you can log in through WeChat, or you can search for Weibo directly in your browser and log in to the web version."

"As for the mobile version, I suspect that the Nokia version of Weibo is also under development, but it should be a separate app."

Jack Ma agreed: "Wang Junshan is a talent. He used WeChat and 'WeChat Farm' to boost Weibo and fill the gap in future open social networking technology. Moreover, unlike QQ, it is a different approach. The idea is good and it is easy to succeed."

"Yes, the Twitter model has been proven overseas and is a very promising model. If Weibo can succeed, it will have a bright future. I estimate that even QQ will be envious."

"That's for sure. Tencent's situation is getting worse and worse. Wang Junshan isn't just targeting Alibaba with his e-commerce business; now he's pushing into social networking to take on Tencent. I sincerely hope that Weibo can succeed, and ideally, it can fight Tencent to the point of mutual destruction."

Jack Ma laughed and said, "By diverting our attention like this, future technology investment in the e-commerce field will decrease, and Alibaba can finally breathe a sigh of relief."

"That's true. Once Weibo takes off, I reckon Tencent will immediately have to step up its efforts with Tencent Taotao, or launch another similar product. When they start competing fiercely, it will be a major boon for Alibaba!"

Ning Fengze smiled and said, "Of course, the most fun thing about Weibo is the trending topics list. Every day, the topics and news that the public cares about most can be listed on the trending topics list. We can make a move here."

"Great minds think alike!" Jack Ma laughed heartily.

"Let's create more Weibo accounts and expose Vipshop's subsidy fraud, pushing it to the top of the trending topics. Use Weibo's trending topics to expose Vipshop's rural appliance subsidy fraud!"

"Use your own spear to attack your own shield!"

"How do you think Wang Junshan will respond? Hahaha!"

"I reckon Wang Junshan will be furious. And he'll be caught in a dilemma!"

Ning Fengze smiled and said:
"If Wang Junshan uses his privileges to forcibly remove the trending topic on Weibo about Vipshop's subsidy fraud, then it shows that Weibo is not free to speak and is a tool of public opinion controlled by future technology!"

"Users will be furious. If we further mislead them, Weibo will be labeled as lacking freedom of speech and being manipulated by future technology. Users will boycott it, and Weibo will be finished. It's like it's just getting started and it's already doomed."

"Wang Junshan definitely can't accept this!"

"But if Wang Junshan doesn't remove the trending topic about Vipshop's subsidy fraud, the matter will spread rapidly through Weibo and become common knowledge."

"This will inevitably cause Vipshop heavy losses, and Wang Junshan cannot accept it!"

"And the top trending topic on Weibo is Vipshop's massive subsidy fraud scandal!"

"The biggest laugh is that their own Weibo account is attacking Vipshop!"

"I bet the whole internet will be laughing their heads off, hahaha!"

Jack Ma was also in a great mood:

"That's right, using Future Tech's Weibo to take down Future Tech's Vipshop is the most interesting thing."

"And this is an open conspiracy! Let's see how Wang Junshan chooses to proceed."

"Whether he chooses to remove the trending topic or not, it will ruin Weibo's future!"

"We still choose not to remove the trending topic, to protect Weibo, and let Vipshop be labeled as fraudulent in subsidies, resulting in heavy losses!"

"Future technologies are destined to be nailed to the pillar of shame; they are the biggest joke!"

"They're all destined to suffer serious injuries!"

"This is an open conspiracy, an unsolvable open conspiracy!"

"And Wang Junshan will become a joke, the biggest joke!"

"This is the best opportunity. You must not let Wang Junshan's efforts go to waste. You must use his Weibo to destroy Vipshop. Then, the two departments will have internal conflicts and fight each other. Let's see how he chooses to act!"

Ning Fengze was overjoyed:
"Don't worry, Chairman, I've got everything planned out!"

"Isn't Weibo officially launching on March 14th? Let's wait a few days until Weibo is officially launched and has more users before we take action to maximize the effect!"

"Besides, it will be more suitable for our online army to prepare when it officially launches. If we have to subscribe to WeChat Farm now to experience it, isn't that just giving money to Wang Junshan and aiding the enemy?"

Jack Ma was quite satisfied: "Yes, we'll wait until they're online before taking action. But we still need to do the preparations in advance."

"Don't worry, Chairman, I've already made the arrangements. They're all specialized organizations. Even if something really happens, they won't trace it back to Alibaba."

"Great, I trust you with this. I'm really looking forward to Weibo's official launch, to the top trending topics being Vipshop's subsidy fraud, and to Wang Junshan's Weibo attack on Vipshop, making him anxious and caught in a dilemma, hahaha!"

"I'm really looking forward to it too." Ning Fengze also expressed his deep emotions:
"If Wang Junshan hadn't launched Weibo, we wouldn't have had such a great opportunity. Now look what's happened, Wang Junshan launched Weibo at this time, he's completely courting disaster, hahaha!"

Jack Ma was in high spirits: "It's truly a stroke of luck for Ali!"

Baidu headquarters.

Li Yan's expression turned serious: "Wang Junshan has launched Weibo again. Is he trying to create the Twitter of the East?"

"What grand ambitions!"

The senior executives all wore complex expressions and spoke one after another:
"There are many similar products, such as Wang Xing's Fanfou, Jiwai, and Tencent Taotao, which are all microblogs and all wanted to be the Twitter of the East, but none of them succeeded."

"Yes, Fanfou and Jiwai, without sufficient capital support, are difficult to grow big. Tencent Taotao originally had the potential to grow big, but internal conflicts arose. Some people supported going all in on Tencent Taotao, while others advocated creating a 'familiar social network' to compete with WeChat."

"Now look what's happened. Tencent hasn't even decided which one to focus on yet, but Future Tech has already launched Weibo to compete with Tencent's Taotao."

"Haha, this is interesting. Tencent doesn't even need to choose anymore. Now Future Tech is launching a full-scale attack on social networking platforms and Weibo. Tencent can only respond passively and fight on two fronts."

"Yes, Future Tech has created Weibo, so Tencent can only focus on Tencent Taotao. In order to compete with WeChat, it may also have to develop social networking among acquaintances. With QQ added to the mix, Tencent's resources will have to be divided into three."

"This is a good thing. If Tencent allocates its limited resources to social networking and microblogging, it won't be able to give our search engine any attention. The resources they invest in Tencent Soso and QQ Browser will also be significantly reduced."

Li Yan nodded: "That's right, so it is indeed a major benefit for us."

"However, what I want to know is whether the emergence of Weibo will shake the foundation of Baidu Tieba!"

"Chairman, don't worry, I think it's very difficult." "The two models are different. Weibo is mainly a microblog, like Twitter, with a 140-character limit, allowing people to share and discover new things anytime, anywhere. It's a real-time information platform. Our Baidu Tieba, on the other hand, is an interest-based community forum, an upgraded version of BBS."

"The two have different positioning and will not cause too much conflict."

"That's good." Li Yan breathed a sigh of relief: "In that case, let's sit back and watch the show, and see how Weibo battles Tencent Taotao."

Sina headquarters.

Chairman Cao was furious:
"Great, no wonder Wang Yufei resigned and went to Future Technology as a consultant!"

"He's not being a consultant at all; he's clearly going to be in charge of Weibo!"

"Wang Junshan poached Wang Yufei just for Weibo!"

"Wang Yufei even said he was tired and confused, and wanted to go into investment? What a load of rubbish!"

"I joined the investment department, and I'm in charge of Weibo business!"

"Those two bastards conspired to screw me over, they're really despicable!"

"Damn it!"

Other senior executives were also furious:
"Sina cannot swallow this insult."

"Besides, some of our colleagues suggested starting a microblog, but we hadn't decided whether to do it yet. We didn't expect Wang Junshan to beat us to it!"

"They must pay the price, otherwise they'll all think Sina is easy to bully. If Weibo gets too big, Sina Blog will definitely be affected!"

"It's difficult. Weibo and our Sina Blog have some business conflicts, but they are in different fields, so we can't sue over non-compete agreements."

"Moreover, Wang Yufei joined the Future Investment Department and served as an advisor at Weibo. With these three obstacles, it will be difficult for us to file a lawsuit."

Chairman Cao's expression grew even more unpleasant:

"Even if we can't file a lawsuit, we can't just let it go like this."

"I can't swallow this insult."

"Didn't someone suggest creating a microblog? Let's get it approved as soon as possible. The group will fully support it. Let's make it Sina Weibo!"

"Kill Wang Junshan's Weibo account and take its place!"

"Chairman, this is a bit difficult," the vice president couldn't help but say.
"Future Technology has already developed Weibo, while we've only just started our project. It will take at least three months to launch."

"By then, Weibo will have become very large, and we will have lost our first-mover advantage, which will have a significant impact."

"More importantly, Wang Junshan made comprehensive preparations for launching Weibo."

"Not only did we acquire Wanwang and use Wanwang's VPS as Weibo servers to ensure the servers had sufficient stress resistance, but we also acquired DISUZ and used the in-depth posts from DISUZ's numerous forums to enrich Weibo's content. We also launched the 'Hundred Thousand Celebrities Plan,' which is how we got Weibo up and running."

"If we want to create Sina Weibo, it's not just that we're behind time, we also have to solve a series of problems."

Chairman Cao nodded: "Your concerns are valid, but we still have to do it!"

"Sina Blog focuses on long-form blogs, but fewer and fewer people will use it in the future. Compared to Weibo's 140-character limit, it doesn't have much of an advantage. In the future, the public will become more and more restless and won't have the time or inclination to write or read long-form blogs."

"A 140-character limit for Weibo is the only way forward!"

"It can be said that if this trend continues, Sina Blog will be powerless against Weibo and will definitely be defeated and replaced by the latter."

"The only way out is for us to also create a Sina Weibo!"

"As for content, Weibo is supported by Discuz's million-user forum, and we have Sina News Portal. As one of the four major portal websites, we are not lacking in content."

"Weibo has the '100,000 Celebrities Plan,' and Sina can also follow suit."

"Chairman, the microblogging market is too chaotic. Future Tech's Weibo, Tencent's Taotao, Fanfou, and Jiwai are all in complete disarray. It would be unwise for Sina to enter the fray at this time!"

"Yes, Chairman, please reconsider!"

Seeing that everyone continued to object, Chairman Cao's expression turned cold:

"Portal websites have no future, and neither do long-form blogs. If Sina doesn't want to continue down this path, microblogging is its only way out."

"It must be done!"

"Immediately select elite personnel to form a team and develop Sina Weibo!"

"Chairman..." someone else spoke again, but was interrupted by Chairman Cao:

"I'm informing you, not discussing this with you!"

"This..." Everyone was speechless for a moment, but they had no choice but to bite the bullet and do it.

Meanwhile, Mr. Cao started browsing Weibo every day, experiencing Weibo, and studying Weibo.

Know yourself and the enemy, and you will be safe in a hundred battles!
With VIP users getting early access, the number of Weibo users surged rapidly in the following days.

This made Wang Yufei extremely happy:
"Chairman, you're really something. VIP users really cherish their VIP privileges, and they're all upgrading to WeChat 3.0 and trying out Weibo."

"In just three days, the number of users exceeded 400 million!"

"Basically, more than half of the VIP users chose to try it out. And over 20 non-VIP users also subscribed to VIP for this reason!"

Wang Junshan was not surprised.

If Weibo's functions were fully opened up, many people would not be interested, or even bother to try it.

At most, I'll just claim the sign-in gift pack from "WeChat Farm".

However, Wang Junshan changed his strategy and treated it as a VIP privilege, allowing him to experience it in advance.

VIP users will feel that this is a privilege they enjoy exclusively, a privilege that other users do not have, so they cannot waste it.

Furthermore, the daily rewards of logging into Weibo, browsing Weibo, and posting on Weibo make it even harder to resist the temptation.

In addition, the Weibo entry point is right in the WeChat PC client; a click will take you to the Weibo webpage, which is very convenient.

WeChat's one-click login has no registration cost, making it a popular experience for most people.

As a result, in just three days, Weibo's user base exceeded 400 million.

In addition, Weibo shares all sorts of fresh happenings, attracts many celebrities, and features in-depth posts from various fields.

Users who initially intended to give it a simple try found it very interesting.

(End of this chapter)