Starting from a Bar to Sign Internet Celebrities

Chapter 460: Chapter 253: The New Era Has Finally Arrived

The news that Kuaishou was poaching Chen Jincheng spread, attracting the attention of many people at Tiao Yin.

After all, the two platforms were in fierce competition. Although Tiao Yin currently held the advantage, Kuaishou was hot on its heels.

As one of Tiao Yin’s hottest influencers, Kuaishou’s attempt to poach him must mean they were planning something new, right?

Han Shangyou, the president, heard the news immediately. He summoned his assistant at once and ordered, "Go find out if this rumor is true."

Tiao Yin had many influencers, and some were even more popular than Chen Jincheng in terms of live-streaming viewership. However, Chen Jincheng didn’t stream often; his value wasn’t in live-streaming.

Unlike other influencers, he was the kind with a distinctive brand and a unique persona—someone irreplaceable and impossible to copy.

Tiao Yin didn’t have many influencers like that.

Crucially, he also had an MCN company. Although it had just passed its 2-star review, with Second-Life Star’s potential and all its female influencers, reaching Three Stars would be a quick affair.

Currently, the strongest MCNs were only at Three Stars; a 4-star Guild had yet to emerge.

Therefore, if Chen Jincheng were poached by Kuaishou, it would indeed have some impact.

Han Shangyou mulled over the problem as he waited for an update.

After some time, Han Shangyou finally received his assistant’s report. "President Han, I’ve gathered some information through my connections. Kuaishou does have a plan to poach talent, but it’s been kept very secret."

"I also contacted the account owner who posted the news. They didn’t go into detail, only saying they had a friend inside Kuaishou and were certain the story is true."

Han Shangyou immediately asked, "Have Chen Jincheng and Second-Life Star made any unusual moves lately?"

The assistant reported, "Not really. Chen Jincheng just participated in the Sujiang TV music festival, and Second-Life Star recently launched two new projects: one called ’Wave-Summoning Technique’ and another involving taking off clothes at the beach. Both went viral."

"Oh, right. Chen Jincheng also posted a video of himself tearing his shirt. It already has over 2 million likes. A lot of influencers are copying it, so it should hit the trending list by tonight."

"From the looks of it, even if Kuaishou did approach Chen Jincheng, he doesn’t seem to be planning to switch platforms. After all, our daily active users are higher than Kuaishou’s right now."

Han Shangyou nodded. "Mmm. Contact Second-Life Star. Give Chen Jincheng an SS-Class traffic boost, and give Second-Life Star a wave of traffic support as well."

Although Tiao Yin’s daily active users were higher, making it unlikely for Chen Jincheng to leave, the fact that this issue had blown up meant they needed to appease him and offer some resources.

Besides, the rumor about Kuaishou poaching Chen Jincheng trended so quickly, it was possible Chen Jincheng himself had fanned the flames.

If that was the case, it could be his way of showing he had no intention of leaving. Rewarding him for it would be appropriate.

"By the way," Han Shangyou asked, "has the shopping cart feature been fully sorted out?"

They had previously asked Chen Jincheng to test the shopping cart feature, which proved its viability. Since then, the tech department had been working full-time to perfect it.

To that end, two departments had even worked through the National Day holiday, planning to take their vacation only after the feature went live.

Now, it was finally foolproof.

They considered this feature their trump card for defeating Kuaishou.

Moreover, the terrifyingly successful results from when Chen Jincheng helped test the shopping cart feature had probably already caught the attention of other MCN companies and major influencers.

They have likely been preparing for it during this time as well.

Even he was looking forward to the feature’s launch.

Hearing the question, the assistant replied, "President Han, it’s essentially complete. We’re just waiting to release the official announcement on time tonight."

Han Shangyou nodded.

...

As the news hit the trending topics, Kuaishou naturally found out about it quickly as well.

The person in charge of Kuaishou was, of course, the renowned President Chen Yixiao.

When he saw the news, President Chen frowned slightly and immediately asked the relevant department head, "What’s your take on this?"

The department head replied at once, "Two possibilities. One, someone on the inside leaked it. Two, Chen Jincheng’s side spread the rumor. Otherwise, it’s too coincidental that it’s specifically about him."

President Chen nodded. "Mmm, but it doesn’t matter. We can’t keep our poaching attempts a secret forever. Have the others given us a response?"

The department head shook his head. "They’re all like Chen Jincheng. No response, but no rejection either."

Hearing this, President Chen actually laughed. "They won’t lift a finger without seeing a reward. No need to be too hasty right now. The integration of ACFUN’s bullet-comment feature and new data algorithm has been mostly completed over the last three to four months."

"After some compatibility debugging, we can release the update next month. That will be the time for our counterattack. We’ll contact these influencers again then. I believe they’ll be ready to make a decision."

"Understood, President Chen," the department head replied.

President Chen, however, was looking at a video on his phone.

It was the very video of Chen Jincheng ripping his shirt off in one go, revealing a muscular physique.

He immediately said, "I just did some research on this Chen Jincheng and his company, Second-Life Star. I’ve found that he’s quite special—an influencer with an irreplaceable style. Plus, his company, Second-Life Star, has many high-quality female stars. It will be worth paying a high price to poach him when the time comes."

The department head nodded and quickly made a note of it.

...

「That afternoon.」

Chen Jincheng had Wang Yuan drive his BMW 5 Series to go check on the three breweries.