You call this entrepreneurship?

Chapter 346 The Second Round
"Tudou.com is no longer the same as it used to be." Wang Wei waved the newspaper in his hand excitedly. "Before, we were short of food and guns, but we finally made it through with everyone's hard work. The clouds have cleared and the moon is shining!"

"The company has just received $19 million in funding. We finally have enough ammunition to compete with Qvod!"

"The facts will soon prove that Qvod is nothing special. It just used despicable tricks to seize the market opportunity. It will soon be defeated in the face of real strength!"

The Tudou employees burst into warm cheers and applause.

"Although Qvod is the number one, it has become the public enemy of the industry!" Wang Wei said happily, "Our peers have united together, Youku, 56.com, Ku6.com... The anti-Qvod alliance is strong and powerful, and they have all received new financing."

"Tudou.com is not fighting alone, but has gathered the strength of all its peers to defeat Qvod in one fell swoop!"

Wang Wei raised his arms and shouted, "Qvod will soon become a thing of the past. The future belongs to Tudou!"

The employees burst into applause again.

Wang Wei continued to boost morale, holding up a newspaper and saying, "Tudou.com's fame has now spread to the United States. This is a report about Tudou.com in the New York Times column!"

"We will soon become the second E-Ku! We will far surpass E-Ku and reach a market value of US$600 million to US$900 million!"

"Tudou.com will flourish and has a bright future!"

The employees cheered together and applauded warmly, as if Qvod was about to fail and Tudou was about to rise.

"Let's work hard together. Although it's a bit hard now, our future is bright!" Wang Wei said loudly, "Tudou.com will be listed on the IPO market soon. We will select several outstanding employees to go to Nasdaq to ring the bell together."

"After the listing, everyone's salary will double, and there will be opportunities to receive stock rewards, and we will have a house and a car!"

After hearing the big promises made by their boss, most of the employees showed excitement, imagined their future financial prospects, and threw themselves into their work with great enthusiasm.

Wang Wei turned away, his excitement gone without a trace, and followed Tudou's CTO to a computer and asked, "Has the number of registered users increased?"

The employee who was managing the backend quickly said, "Mr. Wang, the number of registrations yesterday doubled compared to the day before yesterday, and today's number is even higher. Before noon, the number of registrations has already equaled yesterday's."

"Very good!" Wang Wei nodded with satisfaction, "Keep up the good work!"

Facts have proved that as long as you are willing to spend money, the improvement in performance is still obvious.

Tudou.com not only launched the "Tudou Star Award", but also spent a lot of money on advertising. Its advertisements were placed on portal websites such as Sina, NetEase, and Sohu.

Hao123, a subsidiary of Baidu, also moved Kuaishou to the second row and replaced Tudou.com.

Except for the campus network, Tudou.com has placed advertisements on all other large social networking sites.

Under the financial offensive, traffic soared, reaching a new level every day.

Of course, the number of user registrations has increased, but the growth in visits is not very high. Many people just click in to see what’s going on, and then close the page when they find nothing new.

However, Wang Wei thinks this is not a problem. After a period of time, when creators attracted by the bonus upload videos, users will be attracted to watch.

After admiring the beautiful data curve, Wang Wei suddenly asked, "Has the situation on the campus network been resolved?"

“It’s solved. They’ve put us on the whitelist.” The CTO replied, “We’ve been able to share it since yesterday.”

"It's not easy." Wang Wei frowned.

In order to break the monopoly alliance formed by Qvod and Campus Network, the "Anti-Qvod Alliance" made appeals and condemnations, using public opinion to criticize Campus Network.

The campus was directly labeled as a social platform with a monopoly and a lack of an open and inclusive attitude, which launched a fierce attack on the reputation of the campus network.

Originally thought that the campus network would be in a mess this time, but unexpectedly, the campus network used public opinion to turn the tide, which made Wang Wei dumbfounded.

It was obvious that the campus network prohibited users from posting sharing links to other video websites for competitive purposes, but they insisted that it was due to technical reasons and put the blame on other websites.

The media, in turn, accused other video websites of failing to keep up with the times and integrate with international standards, which made Wang Wei very angry.

Finally, the matter was brought to the attention of the Ministry of Information Industry, and the relevant leaders called several video websites and campus networks together for a talk.

Although the leaders did not criticize the campus network's approach, they still advised the websites to communicate and cooperate more. The "Anti-Qvod Alliance" has won half the game.

Wang Wei said to the CTO: "Let's organize some employees to share a few more videos on the campus network to increase the popularity."

"Even if the campus network doesn't accept our ads, we can't give up this promotional platform. They've opened up the sharing link, so we'll go to their site and promote it vigorously!"

"I'll send someone to do it right away." The CTO immediately found a few employees and went to the popular square on the campus network to take advantage of the popularity.

But a few minutes later, the CTO came to Wang Wei with a confused look on his face, "Mr. Wang, there's a problem."

"What's the problem?" Wang Wei was stunned for a moment, "Did the campus network ban us again?"

"It's not banned." The CTO said with a grim expression, "But it's useless to post it. The campus network prompts that it is temporarily blocked."

"Block!" Wang Wei was immediately shocked. "How dare the campus network do this! They promised in front of the leaders before! They said one thing in front of others and another behind their backs, right?"

"Take screenshots right now and get me evidence!" Wang Wei was furious. "I'm going to file a complaint. I'm going to file a complaint with the central government!"

Wang Wei immediately began calling the bosses of the "Anti-Qvod Alliance" and informed them of the latest findings.

As a result, other video websites also discovered the same situation, and the public was immediately outraged.

Soon, Wang Jun, the new CTO who stayed in the campus network, received another notice asking him to go to the relevant department for tea.

Wang Jun and his men hurried to the place and entered the small meeting room under the guidance of the staff.

As soon as I stepped in, I saw a circle of people sitting inside, all with gloomy faces.

The leader sitting in the main seat waved his hand and said, "Xiao Wang, come on, you've come just in time. Please explain."

Wang Jun walked over carefully and found a place to sit down.

Wang Wei was the first to fire, "Your campus network is really powerful, you are good at doing things in a double-edged way."

Wang Jun immediately understood that the fact that he had shared the video had been discovered, but he couldn't say it out loud and could only pretend to be confused.

"Boss Wang, what are you talking about? Why are we secretly obeying your orders?"

"You know it clearly in your heart." The vice president of Youku.com also accused, "You promised in front of the leaders before that you would open the sharing link to our video website."

"You agreed so readily, but then you blocked our video. You said one thing to our faces and another behind our backs!"

People from other video websites followed suit and kept adding fuel to the fire.

"That's right, it's so abominable!"

"This clearly shows that you don't take your leadership seriously!"

"This is a provocation on the campus network and should be severely punished!"

Wang Wei said angrily, "Why is it always you, the CTO, who comes here? Where is Zhang Pingyi? Where is your boss Qin Shaoyan?"

Wang Jun from the campus network looked at the leader cautiously, "Our CEO Qin Shaoyan and CEO Zhang Pingyi are now abroad. The campus network organized an international college student summer camp, and they went there."

"Because this event is so important, and the participants are students from various universities, and it is basically their first time to go abroad, our company is afraid that something might happen while they are away, so the boss personally supervises the whole process."

"After all, these students are the pillars of the country, and we are afraid of any mishaps."

The leaders had also heard about this matter. The campus network selected 30 college students from major universities across the country to study abroad. It caused quite a stir, and because it was related to the United Nations, it naturally attracted attention from all sides.

"Everything is difficult when you go out." The leader paused for two seconds and said with emotion, "You have to be careful in dealing with it."

"You are in charge of the campus network now, right?"

"Yes, I am in charge now." Wang Jun said quickly.

"Then explain it to everyone." The leader pointed to the laptop on the table, "What's going on?"

Wang Jun glanced at the screen, which showed a prompt page, "The shared video is temporarily blocked. It can be shared normally after review."

Well, it was because of this. Wang Jun took a deep breath, and when he remembered what Mr. Qin had told him before, his heart suddenly calmed down.

"Leader, this is what's going on." Wang Jun said cautiously, "Our campus network has an audit mechanism. All content must be audited. If any content that violates regulations or disciplines is found, it will be deleted immediately."

"As for content from outside the site, we will first block it and then release it after review."

Wang Wei from Tudou immediately stood up and retorted, "Nonsense! You are clearly quibbling. The campus network has been open for two years, but I have never heard of any review mechanism."

"You are just making excuses to block our video website. This is also a disguised way of prohibiting us from sharing links!"

The leader glanced at Wang Jun and asked in a deep voice, "Has this review always been there, or has it only been recently implemented?"

"Always!" Wang Jun answered seriously, "This is the rule set by Mr. Qin Shaoyan. The content on the campus network website must be reviewed by auditors. I have been on the campus network for half a year. At least this rule existed before I came."

"The campus network has more than 30 employees who are responsible for auditing."

"After all, the main users of the campus network are students, and we are responsible for the students' mental health."

The leader nodded and said that students’ problems must be taken seriously.

“Is there a lot of illegal content on campus?”

Wang Jun then said: "It happens occasionally, but because of the review mechanism, users can abide by it and will not post any horrific, pornographic or violent content."

As he spoke, Wang Jun turned on his computer and entered the backend with an administrator account to show his leader some of the deleted illegal content.

The leader only took a glance and thought it was a good thing that these contents were deleted. What the hell is this?

At that time, there was no firewall on the Internet, nor was there anything like Green Dam. The content on the Internet was not as simple as pornographic, bloody and violent content. There were even more serious content.

The leader nodded with satisfaction and said, "You have done a good job in this audit and supervision mechanism. You have set up a defense line on the front line of the Internet to prevent harmful information from spreading everywhere. This practice deserves recognition, and this spirit of self-discipline and self-awareness deserves praise."

People from other websites nearby looked at each other in bewilderment. Isn't this a meeting to criticize and denounce the campus network?
Why is this being praised?
The leader paused for a moment and said, "This practice has indeed caused inconvenience to other video websites. Other video websites should understand this. You two should communicate more and see how to coordinate and deal with this issue."

"We are all people in the Internet industry. If there are any problems, we should communicate more."

Wang Wei from Tudou.com said rather aggrievedly, "Leader, we have no problem with the review mechanism. We do have a problem with the different treatment of campus networks."

"Why wouldn't the videos on Qvod be blocked? They keep saying they review videos, but the videos on Qvod were directly approved when they were shared. There was no review at all."

As he spoke, Wang Wei also demonstrated that the video on Qvod was indeed sent out without any hindrance.

The leader looked at Wang Jun again and frowned.

Wang Jun was very helpless, so he said, "Boss Kou, please explain it to me."

Kou Hongfei of Qvod stood up and said, "We established a strategic cooperative relationship of mutual trust with Campus Network at the beginning of our establishment, but this does not mean that our Qvod can be released without review."

"All videos on our Qvod website are reviewed and checked by our website. More than half of our employees on Qvod website are content reviewers."

The leader was somewhat surprised by Kou Hongfei's statement, so he asked, "How many reviewers do you have on Qvod?"

"I haven't counted them specifically, but it should be more than 160 people," Kou Hongfei replied. "Because we are growing so fast, we still need to recruit more employees."

"Is your recruitment going smoothly?" the leader asked with interest.

"This is not difficult, because content review is actually to check whether the video contains any illegal content. It is easy to get started and you can start working after a little training." Kou Hongfei said, "We have reached a cooperation with the street, and give priority to hiring some laid-off workers, ordinary people with difficult families, and many disabled people with mobility problems."

Wang Jun added, "Our campus network is also expanding and plans to recruit 200 employees."

The leader smiled and said: "This is great. The Internet can also promote employment. This is a good thing."

Wang Jun said, "Leader, we gave the green light to Qvod because the content on their website has been reviewed. The other websites need to be reviewed because some video websites now..."

Wang Jun didn't finish his words, but everyone present already understood what he meant.

People from other video websites felt uncomfortable after hearing this. Are you implying that we all have problems?

Apart from some pirated resources, there is nothing out of the ordinary.

Wang Wei also retorted unhappily, "Boss Wang, are you saying that there is something wrong with our video website?"

"You are slandering me. You need evidence to prove what you say!"

Wang Jun glanced at Wang Wei, then buried his head in the laptop and operated it. He opened Tudou.com, searched it, and showed it to his leader.

Wang Wei, who was originally in high spirits, felt a sudden pang in his heart and couldn't help feeling guilty, because he knew very well what his website looked like.

Although there is no problem on the surface, there are some things hidden inside.

Sure enough, the leader's face gradually became serious. He turned the laptop towards Wang Wei and pointed at the screen. "Explain it."

Wang Wei took a look and broke out in a cold sweat.

The results of the other party's searches are all large-scale pornographic content, which is very common. Users often upload various art films from Europe, America, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Although Tudou occasionally cleans up videos with particularly high playback volumes, it cannot keep up with the large number of people sharing them.

As long as you want to find it, you will definitely find it.

After all, there are only a few dozen people on their website, and most of them are working programmers, so there is no such thing as an auditor.

"Slander, this is a frame-up!" Wang Wei cried out in injustice, "This must have been done on purpose by someone."

The leader waved his hands and said, "Frame-ups should be dealt with by law. Now the problem is on your website, so you have to clean it up first."

The leader said earnestly: "Clean the house first and then invite the guests."

“Other video websites should also sort themselves out first.”

"I think the censorship model of campus network and Qvod is quite good and worth promoting and learning from."

Youku.com: “…”

Ku6.com: “…”

56.net: “…”

Several websites are about to cry. We are here to start a business, not to do charity.

Why hire dozens or even hundreds of auditors for no reason? It will cost a lot of money to keep them.

Besides, who is clean on the Internet these days? Why is there such strict regulation?

We just don’t believe that the campus network and Qvod are clean.

But at this time and in this situation they couldn't say anything more, the leader's meaning was already very clear.

You should check and correct yourselves as soon as possible, and it will be over if big things are reduced to small things. After all, the Internet industry is in its early stages and you can't be too strict about it.

But there are still some basic rules to follow. You can't do whatever you want and ignore everything for the sake of traffic.

Just admit your mistakes honestly and reflect on them, don’t wait for me to force you to correct them.

After coming out of the relevant department, Wang Wei said to the vice president of Youku.com with a gloomy face: "This campus network is really powerful. I can't find a place to start."

"We lost the second game right at the beginning."

The vice president of Youku.com also sighed, and then perked up, "I don't believe they don't have any flaws. We can find them if we want to."

"Forget it." Wang Wei shook his head. "Off-the-cuff tactics won't have much effect. As expected, we still have to fight head-on. As long as we can spend money, we can dig into its user base."

The vice president of Youku.com nodded and said, "Come on then."

(End of this chapter)