10: Chapter 10 Cheng Daqi Takes Action 10: Chapter 10 Cheng Daqi Takes Action A dreamless night.
Without the torment of illness, Cheng Daqi had slept soundly.
A new day began with opening the system panel to check his bodily states.
Cheng Daqi summoned the system panel.
Health: 57100 (Below sixty, one will receive a sudden death buff, with the likelihood of sudden death increasing as the value decreases; system boost, within one day the host’s sudden death buff will not trigger, countdown 6:42:31)
(Earned by completing system tasks)
Driving LV1: Can drive ordinary cars (Heh, noob).
Eloquence LV1: Slightly improves communication efficiency and persuasion success rate (It’s better when you talk with an expert).
Writing LV1: Quality of a failed terminal network author (You’re an author?).
Scavenging Treasure Chest LV1: Slight increase in the value of scavenged treasure chest items (Entry-level trash collector).”
Looking at the skills in his system, Cheng Daqi thought about the information he gathered from his cellphone yesterday.
This world was not much different than his previous one, only some of the countries and cities had different names.
Some well-known companies from his previous life also existed in this world.
However, there were still many differences in the details.
For instance, the social media app most Hua Country people used was called Feixin.
In America, people used White Eagle, similar to the little blue bird (Twitter, which Musk has now renamed to X).
Both applications were installed on his phone.
However, Feixin had more contacts, and on White Eagle, he only had two friends—one was Sani, and the other was the old man Hanks he met yesterday.
It was interesting; Feixin represented his origins from Hua Country, with all his past connections there.
Despite a number of friends that seemed substantial, they could hardly offer any help to his current situation.
The friends on White Eagle reflected his status in America, where everything was just beginning, without any foundation.
Yet what Cheng Daqi was contemplating was how to make his first bucket of gold on the emerging video apps in his home country.
The hottest app in Hua Country now was Douyin, similar to TikTok in his previous life.
In the year 2017, which had just passed, Douyin had expanded its user base to twenty million, second only to Suishou, securing the number two spot in the domestic short video market.
Now, with more than half of 2018 gone, Douyin surpassing Suishou in market size and influence had become a certainty.
This Douyin, from the founder’s background to development history, was extremely similar to the TikTok Cheng Daqi had used in his previous life.
Thus, Cheng Daqi had the idea of creating an account and posting videos on Douyin.
Self-media entrepreneur, internet celebrity, uploader—ventures in this new media domain held enormous room for growth in the upcoming years.
In his past life as an entrepreneur, Cheng Daqi had also battled in the short video arena.
He had led his core team to create a fitness IP matrix rooted in the local region of Lugudao.
They had seven leading IPs, each with over fifty thousand followers.
That might seem small compared to internet celebrities who easily had millions of followers.
But Cheng Daqi’s team focused on local accounts where most of the followers were Lugudao locals.
And the fitness domain could be considered a niche.
To be able to build local accounts to over fifty thousand followers, and furthermore, create seven IPs, was a tremendous success.
This success specifically meant they had squeezed out the room for other local gyms to promote themselves on self-media!
During their Series A funding, his company had three core competitive edges, one of which was their own local IP matrix and the accompanying standalone IP creation capability.
When it came to self-media, Cheng Daqi had real success experiences.
He analyzed his current situation and realized he naturally had the potential to go viral.
Stowing away to America to become a homeless drifter—foolish and laughable, like a Joker.
Begging at a relief point—shaming compatriots abroad can easily lead to ridicule.
These two premises complement each other, ensuring that as long as he engages in self-media, he can naturally gain a wave of traffic.
Friends who have been in self-media know this.
Gaining followers in the early stages of an account is the toughest task.
Why do most top MCN agencies only sign up ordinary people with an existing fan base?
Because most of the accounts they start up themselves lose a lot of money, and many don’t survive the transitional period!
By the years 2022 and 2023, the efficiency of starting up and operating accounts still was nowhere near as high as developing deep connections with ordinary people.
Here, ordinary people are not just random passersby, but refer to those who have started their own self-media and gained some fan base.
For instance, Wuyou Media, whose core competency lies in their makeup and photography teams.
That’s why they scout for beauties with tens of thousands of followers, deeply develop them, and then make a hefty profit.
Many ladies rated seven or eight out of ten would join their company and, upon reappearing, become a nine.
Rumor has it that a photographer and lighting technician from Wuyou Media once defected, receiving a signing fee of fifty “Si.”
Cheng Daqi, back then with his team developing an IP, spent over four million just on local promotions.
Monthly expenses for team operations also ran upwards of a hundred thousand.
A lot of investment was poured in just to craft his own local fitness matrix into something presentable.
Of course, at the time of the PA financing, this matrix added tens of millions to the company’s valuation, earning at least a threefold return on investment.
If it hadn’t been his own fitness brand, this money would have seemed much better spent on acquiring new customers directly.
Now, Cheng Daqi’s identity naturally fit the role of a self-media person, even haters counted as fans.
Moreover, you wouldn’t believe how fiercely loyal fans can become once they switch sides.
Many celebrities have fallen due to disenchanted fans and core supporters backpedaling on their allegiance.
Why was the ‘Internet Saint’ Pigeon so adored yet doomed by his fans?
Because those who flipped from haters to admirers were truly impressed by him.
After Cheng Daqi opened an account, it was inevitable that the majority of his followers would be haters.
But as long as he held on, there was a way to handle it.
And, after all, even bad traffic is still traffic!
“Even bad traffic is still traffic!”
In the era where traffic is king, one aims to amplify their value through self-media and spread their influence.
The hardest step is obtaining traffic.
Cheng Daqi didn’t hesitate, first he deactivated his existing TikTok account.
Then he registered a new account.
For his profile picture, he chose an image of the Hua Country national flag.
His bio read, “A dedicated young man, surviving day-to-day begging in America.”
This set the first point of ridicule for those who came across it.
Next, he began curating his follow list.
Pay attention, the follow list is crucial as it can be a point of detail for those with ulterior motives to dig into.
Think back to the early days of checking the melon on Weibo.
Cheng Daqi first followed Hua Country Daily, followed by various official self-media accounts from Hua Country.
Then he followed job bloggers and recruitment sites.
Next, he added social welfare organizations’ accounts and accounts from his original hometown.
Finally, he threw in America’s embassy in Hua Country and American visa service agencies.
Although Cheng Daqi hadn’t said a word, the sequence of these followed accounts seemed to already tell a story.
Cheng Daqi didn’t like to lie, but he also had no obligation to respond to any future skepticism or analysis.
The story woven within his follow list had laid the groundwork, now he just had to wait for the traffic to pick up and for a perceptive person to discover it.