Starting from a Bar to Sign Internet Celebrities

Chapter 340 - 208: The Advertisement Fiasco! The Path to Being Number One

Zhu Ling now had her own large streaming room. Even though she usually streamed from her market stall, she still had the right to enjoy these perks.

The moment she entered the streaming room, she saw her younger sister was inside.

Zhu Ling herself didn’t stream from here, but her sister often took over the space—a classic case of the cuckoo occupying the nest. The girl was just too vain.

When she saw her older sister come in, Zhu Jingjing immediately stood up. "Sister, did you sleep with the boss again last night?"

"Shut up!" Zhu Ling was utterly speechless at her sister’s audacity.

But Zhu Jingjing said pointedly, "Grandma mentioned you haven’t been coming home at night lately. She even asked me where you’ve been!"

Hearing this, Zhu Ling immediately replied, "From now on, if I don’t come home, just tell Grandma I’m working!"

"Right. I guess sleeping with the boss counts as work, huh?" Zhu Jingjing said with a completely straight face.

"Get out!" Zhu Ling had finally had enough of her sister.

...

Chen Jincheng arrived at the office and went to the editing department first.

As the company signed on more talent, the number of behind-the-scenes and support staff was also steadily increasing.

The editing department alone, including data analysts and video editors, had grown to over ten people. Soon, Xiaohai’s data analysis team and Xiaoliao’s editing team would be split into two separate departments.

"Boss!"

"Brother Cheng!"

"..."

When he walked in, everyone in the editing department greeted him.

Chen Jincheng handed the footage he’d shot for Zhu Ling that morning to Xiaoliao. "Edit these clips, pick a sweet-sounding track from the music library to go with it, and then send it to Zhu Ling."

"You can count on me, Boss," Xiaoliao nodded.

After giving his instructions, Chen Jincheng returned to his own office.

He had barely sat down when Sister Hong came in with a document. She handed it to him and said, "Boss, this is a video ad proposal for Zhu Ling. The client is offering 500,000 for a 30-second video. It’s for sanitary napkins!"

"Sanitary napkins?" Chen Jincheng was taken aback.

He took the file and looked. It really was.

It was just that having Zhu Ling advertise sanitary napkins seemed like a bit of a mismatch.

’But more importantly, I can’t accept this kind of ad. If I remember correctly, not long after the platform’s shopping cart feature went live, there was a massive advertising scandal on Tiao Yin.

To put it simply, the launch of the shopping cart feature had triggered a frenzy of selling products through video ads.

But most influencers were only in it for the money. Their eyes would light up at the sight of cash, and they had no concept of quality assurance or product inspection. As long as they were paid, they’d take any ad—even if it was for the equivalent of gutter oil.

This led to the great Tiao Yin advertising scandal, where many products promoted by influencers were found to have serious quality issues. Some were even unlicensed products lacking basic manufacturing information.

The sanitary napkin scandal was one of the first to break. Overnight, 56 different brands of sanitary products were exposed.

This, in turn, triggered scandals involving other advertised products.

The incident was a huge deal, leading to many influencers being banned or forced to clean up their act. It also gave rise to a new type of influencer: the exposé reviewer.

These influencers built their channels around exposing fake or shoddy products. They specialized in picking apart a product’s flaws and sensationalizing them to attract views.

When they found fault with a product, the brand had two choices: either pay a "protection fee" or get hammered.

The ones that got hammered served as cautionary tales for everyone else.

For those who paid the protection fee, the influencer might even help promote their products. In reality, profit was the ultimate goal for these exposé reviewers too.

This type of influencer was popular for a time, but unfortunately, they got too arrogant. They started going after major brands and large corporations, and once they provoked the powers of capital, their entire niche was crushed and throttled. Even a famous cross-dressing exposé influencer didn’t dare continue down that path.

However, there were conspiracy theories surrounding the video e-commerce scandal.

Some claimed it was a conspiracy by Tiao Yin’s rival, Kuaishou. After Tiao Yin launched its shopping cart feature, Kuaishou quickly followed suit and supposedly orchestrated the scandal to slow Tiao Yin’s growth in the e-commerce space.

Others said Penguin was behind it. Shortly after the scandal, Penguin launched its second major offensive against Tiao Yin. This time, the various arms of the Penguin empire simultaneously released over a dozen short-video apps, like Ha-pi and Yoo. Coupled with the revival of Penguin’s own Weishi, they launched a bloody siege against Tiao Yin.

It just seemed that Penguin and short-form video were cosmically incompatible. Their siege with over a dozen apps ended in a rout. It was just like back in 2013 when they had founded Weishi, a short-video platform based on micro-videos, only to shelve it due to a lack of focus.

Otherwise, Tiao Yin might never have had a chance.

Instead, a whole batch of influencers got royally screwed by Penguin.

Even though Penguin had lost its first battle against Tiao Yin, it was still the largest internet platform in the country with the most user traffic. Many influencers believed that once Penguin properly entered the short-video market, Tiao Yin would be no match for it. They thought the two would be evenly matched at worst, not that Tiao Yin would completely dominate.

So, during its second offensive, Penguin began poaching Tiao Yin’s influencers on a massive scale. A good number of influencers and MCNs were tempted and jumped ship to Weishi. If Penguin had played its cards right that time, it might have actually had a chance to beat Tiao Yin.

Unfortunately, a platform that has been a hegemon for too long stops caring about user experience. It’s like how any fun game that falls into their hands eventually becomes a pay-to-win grind, completely ruining the gameplay experience.

They brought that same mentality to Weishi’s operations—the arrogant belief that they didn’t have to worry about users leaving, that users were worthless, just a field of leeks ready to be harvested. The result was predictable.

Penguin’s short-video venture was utterly defeated in its second war with Tiao Yin. For the next few years, it sank into obscurity. It wasn’t until 2023, when Weishi started signing battle streamers who had been banned from Tiao Yin, people like Lin Changmao, that the app finally reappeared in the public eye.’