My capital is quite large.

Chapter 166 Today's Headlines

Jinling, Xianlin Science and Technology City.

Inside a relatively independent research and development building, the sound of keyboards being typed was soft and frequent.

This is the R&D headquarters of Byte Technology, the most mysterious subsidiary under Haofeng Group.

President Li Feng, unusually, did not stay in his luxurious top-floor office today. Instead, he brought his chief secretary Zhang Xinyu and a group of senior executives to the front line of algorithm research and development.

"Mr. Li, you've come to see!"

Zhang Yiming, the head of ByteDance, wore a pair of slightly dull black-rimmed glasses, but at this moment his eyes burned with an undisguised fervor.

He respectfully handed a test smartphone to Li Feng.

On the screen, the newly packaged internal beta version of the app is running.

The top of the page has no fancy UI design, only four simple bold characters: 【今日头条】 (Today's Headlines).

"Mr. Li, according to the information-based people-finding strategy framework, our initial data collection process has been successfully implemented!"

"Currently, this software has already integrated some anonymized data from Haofeng's Weibo, iQiyi, and Bilibili in the backend!"

"As long as a user stays on this app for more than three seconds, or performs actions such as swiping, liking, or pulling down on images or videos in a specific field..."

"Our underlying web crawler algorithm can assign a dozen or even dozens of unique 'interest tags' to this user within a fraction of a second!"

"The more a user scrolls, the better the algorithm understands them! Eventually, the recommendation engine will continuously feed their screen content that triggers their dopamine levels, making them so engrossed that they simply can't stop!"

Li Feng held the testing machine and casually swiped his finger across the screen a few times.

The page loads extremely fast. Although the current content pool only contains some Weibo posts and news from portal websites, the "feeding" feeling of endless scrolling and no need to think about searching is already reminiscent of the traffic behemoth that will come later.

"The underlying logic is fine, but the algorithm is still too rigid."

Li Feng put down his phone and pointed out the problem: "The current recommendation mechanism still relies too much on the crude matching of keywords and lacks in-depth exploration of users' implicit needs."

Zhang Yiming wiped his sweat and nodded quickly: "President Li has a keen eye! The current algorithm model is indeed still very rudimentary. After all, we haven't been fed with large-scale real user data yet. Machines need time to learn and experiment."

"Then go feed it!"

Li Feng turned around and gave orders to the senior executives from various departments who were accompanying him:

"Notify Haofeng's Weibo, iQiyi, and Bilibili operations departments!"

"Starting tomorrow, all traffic from our entire network will be forcibly redirected to 'Toutiao'!"

"Open the app with a Google Play button, create referral links, and run some download promotions that give away VIP trial cards! I need to inject over ten million real daily active users into this app in the shortest amount of time!"

"Mr. Li, the content library of this software is not yet complete. If we drive tens of millions of daily active users into it, the user retention rate may be very poor..." an operations executive couldn't help but remind him.

"Poor retention rates? Lukewarm performance? I don't care about any of that!"

Li Feng snorted coldly: "Right now, I don't care about daily active user retention, I don't care about its profit and loss! All I want is for you to continuously feed it massive amounts of real behavioral data!"

"Technological iteration is the most important thing!"

In its early days, Toutiao was seen by traditional portal giants as nothing more than a vulgar copycat that couldn't be considered highbrow.

But once the algorithm's moat is established, in this era where humanity is about to be overwhelmed by fragmented information, it will be the overlord that controls the minds of netizens!

……

After all, paper can't contain fire.

Haofeng Network's high-profile mobilization of traffic across its entire matrix is ​​enough to alert even the most oblivious competitors to the shift in the wind, let alone the Tencent empire, which is always extremely sensitive to traffic!

Fiyta Building, Nanshan District, Shenzhen.

In the strategic conference room at Tencent's headquarters, Pony Ma looked at the analysis report in his hand with a serious expression.

"Information feed distribution? Algorithm recommendation? What new tricks is Li Feng up to now?!"

Pony Ma slammed the report on the table. "Haofeng's Weibo has already monopolized the public social media arena, and now he's created 'Toutiao'—is he trying to steal the last scraps of information and image distribution from us?!"

At this moment, Zhang Xiaolong from the WeChat business unit stood up, his tone calm:

"Mr. Ma, we've analyzed Haofeng's actions. They're trying to break the old model of 'people searching for information'."

"But they have their algorithms, and we have our barriers!"

"WeChat's user base has now surpassed 100 million. This is the largest network of personal relationships in all of China! No matter how Li Feng uses algorithms, he can't break into this territory!"

Zhang Xiaolong projected a brand-new project proposal onto the big screen, a hint of pride flashing in his eyes:

"To counter Haofeng's expansion in self-media and text-based information feeds, our WeChat team has developed a product capable of disrupting the media landscape!"

Its name is—[WeChat Official Account]!

"We don't need to scrape content from the entire internet, nor do we need any complicated recommendation algorithms. We want to bring all media professionals, creators, and businesses across China into our WeChat private ecosystem!"

"Users actively subscribe, and content is precisely pushed to their personal chat windows! Using the strong binding of familiar social networks, we can counter the plaza algorithms of Weibo and Toutiao!"

Looking at the underlying structure of "WeChat Official Accounts" on the big screen, Pony Ma slammed his fist on the table and stood up!

"good!"

"Li Feng wants to control everything in the era of social media, but I'll prevent him from doing so!"

"Launch immediately! Promote across all channels! I'm going to challenge Haofeng Network in the text and image news arena!"

……

Time is like a fleeting moment.

As China's two internet giants engage in fierce competition in the information flow arena, the scorching month of August has quietly arrived.

This month has been unusually quiet and busy for the entire Haofeng Group.

Jinling Haofeng headquarters, in the rest area of ​​the film and television department.

Xu Zheng, sporting a large bald head, paced back and forth at the front desk, clutching a briefcase full of copied hard drives and scripts.

Compared to the predicament of two years ago when he was struggling to secure investment despite having the script for "Lost in Thailand" everywhere.

At this moment, Xu Zheng already exudes the spiritedness of a rising director.

"Oh, Director Xu, please stop turning around and have some tea to rest."

The receptionist politely brought over a cup of green tea, smiling reassuringly, "Director Han is currently in a video conference and will be out soon."

"Not tired at all." Xu Zheng wiped the sweat from his forehead and smiled somewhat awkwardly. "I'm just excited."

More than two years ago, Li Feng recognized his talent and not only fully funded "Lost in Thailand" but also gave him a great deal of creative freedom, which helped him make a name for himself.

Now, the second installment of his self-directed and self-acted series, "Lost in Thailand," has just finished filming in Thailand, and even the rough cut of the post-production editing has been completed!

Xu Zheng made a special trip to Nanjing this time because he wanted to personally present this "answer sheet" to the super-rich patron who had shown him great favor.

Moreover, he had heard that the post-production publicity and distribution resources for this film depended on the boss's personal approval.

"Squeak—"

The conference room door opened, and Lao Han, the director of the film and television department, came out carrying several documents.

"Oh, Director Han!" Xu Zheng quickly went up to him and handed over the briefcase with both hands.

"Director Xu, you've come all the way from the film set, thank you for your hard work." Old Han accepted it with a smile.

"Director Han, filming for 'Lost in Thailand' has wrapped! The rough cut is in there!"

Xu Zheng rubbed his hands together expectantly. "This is my masterpiece as a director! You see... is President Li in the company today? I'd like to report on the filming progress to him in person, and also... thank him in person for fulfilling my dream of making a second installment in this series!"

In Xu Zheng's view, although the film's investment was only a little over 30 million, it was definitely a sincere work in the comedy circle. The boss should at least take the time to meet him, the contributor.

However, upon hearing Xu Zheng's request, Old Han gave a formulaic apologetic smile.

"Director Xu, this is really unfortunate."

Old Han patted Xu Zheng on the shoulder, his tone polite but distant, "I will definitely pass on your kindness to President Li. But thanking him in person is probably not an option."

"What? Mr. Li's schedule is packed today?" Xu Zheng was taken aback.

"It's not just that today's schedule is full. You probably won't be able to see President Li for the entire month of August."

Old Han shook his head. "President Li isn't even in the country right now. He's flown to North America to personally oversee and coordinate the upcoming League of Legends S2 World Championship for our group."

"Oh? You went to America?" Xu Zheng sighed regretfully. "That's...that's really unfortunate. I'll wait until next month, when Mr. Li returns to China, and then I'll fly over specifically to schedule a time with him!"

"Okay, I'll inform him when Mr. Li returns." Old Han nodded with a smile and escorted Xu Zheng to the elevator.

As the elevator doors slowly closed, Xu Zheng's shiny bald head disappeared from sight.

The polite smile on Lao Han's face vanished instantly, replaced by a mocking expression tinged with arrogance.

He weighed the briefcase full of copies of "Lost in Thailand" in his hand and tossed it to his assistant next to him.

"Shall we make it up after I get back to China?"

Old Han sneered, secretly thinking to himself, "This bald guy really thinks he's something special."

"A low-budget comedy film with an investment of only 30 million yuan might be a treasure in other people's eyes, but in Haofeng Film and Television's portfolio, it's not even considered an S-level project."

"Countless top directors and celebrities across China, with hundreds of millions of dollars in their hands, are lining up to see our CEO Li, but it's as difficult as climbing to heaven."

"You're a newcomer who just crossed over into directing, and you want to see the big boss and curry favor after finishing filming?"

"Do you really think you can just cross Mr. Li's threshold as easily as you think?"