Chapter 214 - 188: Building Momentum

Chapter 214: Chapter 188: Building Momentum

"Huh?" It took Granny Xu a moment to realize what Xu An was talking about. Then she hit him with a bit of a tongue twister: "Why would you think that I would think you’re wasting money?"

Xu An, thinking she still hadn’t grasped it, reminded her, "But the ten-thousand-yuan grand prize is just being given away for free..."

Before he could finish, Granny Xu waved him into silence. A hint of displeasure crossed her face, and her tone turned sharp. "So in your eyes, your grandma is just some stubborn, old-fashioned stick-in-the-mud, is that it?"

"I’ve been watching you run this business for over two months now." Granny Xu gently patted Xu An’s shoulder and said with emotion, "I’ve seen it all these days—online ordering, food delivery, delivery drivers... it’s all new to me. I don’t get it, and I can’t quite understand it, but I know it’s all good stuff. If you’re willing to spend this money now, you must have thought it through. Since you have it all figured out, what’s there for me to worry about..."

Granny Xu’s words completely overturned Xu An’s impression of her. ’Is this the same grandma who was occasionally generous but usually a penny-pincher? The same grandma who liked to sit silently in the courtyard, staring at the sky? The same quiet grandma who worked without saying much?’

"Grandma, do you want to learn how to chat with people online? How about I teach you when I get off work?" Xu An said with a smile, looking down. "Chatting with people online is a lot of fun. The users are from all over the country, and they’re all different ages..."

"No need!" Granny Xu waved her hand at Xu An, her eyes full of pride. "Da Ni already taught me. She even registered a WeChat account for me and I’ve added a bunch of people nearby. This WeChat is much easier to use than QQ. You press a button to talk, press it again to hear them talk back. It’s not all flashy and complicated like QQ..."

If Granny Xu’s previous words had moved Xu An deeply, then her latest declaration left him utterly dumbfounded. ’My grandma is this trendy? She’s already learned how to surf the web!’ A wave of regret followed. ’I’ve paid too little attention to her; I didn’t even know about this.’ Then it hit him. ’Does WeChat really have this many users already, here in 2012?’

Xu An immediately thought of the marketing plan Tang Wen had presented. Internet promotion was a major component, which was exactly the direction he wanted to take. WeChat official accounts would have a huge following in the future. Some of the early accounts amassed a massive number of fans and made a fortune just by reposting jokes from various platforms every day.

Right now, WeChat’s momentum looked pretty good, but it was still a far cry from the old king, QQ. Who could have predicted that WeChat would pull an upset and overtake the veteran? In less than ten years, its user base would be more than double that of QQ’s. Furthermore, the vast majority of companies adopted WeChat as their primary communication tool. Even with the later emergence of specialized office software like DingTalk, WeChat’s position was never diminished in the slightest.

Of course, WeChat had its downsides. Its convenience was so pronounced that it forced workers into a 24/7 lifestyle. The tool itself was good, but many of the people using it became ruthless...

At this thought, Xu An immediately pulled out his phone and sent a message to Tang Wen.

’Tang Wen, register a WeChat official account for Xu’s Catering right away. From now on, resize the posts we send to Big Eye and publish them on the official account too.’

"Anzi, Anzi!" His second grand-uncle’s voice suddenly rang in his ear. Xu An quickly put his phone away and looked at him.

"How much did you spend on this ad placement?" his second grand-uncle asked, cutting right to the chase.

"It’s a prime-time slot on Hai City’s local station. A week’s worth of ads costs between three and five thousand," Xu An answered, then paused. "Second Grand-uncle, why the sudden question?"

"Do you think... once the mudflat aquaculture gets going, we could advertise on TV to attract people to come harvest mangrove fruits, dig for Jumping Fish, and all that?" His second grand-uncle’s eyes filled with envy. "That Beitun Town next door is really something else. They just announced they were developing a tourism economy, and already, tons of people from the city are driving over to visit. They have to pay to eat, pay to stay, and pay to play. All Beitun Town had to invest was labor to manage the beach and the cost of renovating hotels..."

Hmm... After hearing his second grand-uncle’s words, Xu An fell silent.

Although he had made it sound plausible before, he knew that neither harvesting mangrove fruits nor digging for Jumping Fish could be the main attraction for visitors. Even if people were interested, they would come once or twice at most to satisfy their curiosity, and then that would be it. Those two things alone couldn’t support a tourism industry for Qianhai Town. It needed a primary, truly relaxing feature—something unique to Qianhai Town—to really get its tourism off the ground.

Unfortunately, Qianhai Town currently had nothing of the sort. Otherwise, the New Rural Development project wouldn’t have exclusively chosen Beitun Town, with its Golden Coastline. But since the mudflat aquaculture hadn’t even started yet, and mudflat tourism was still just a pipe dream, Xu An simply laughed it off and gave a noncommittal response.

The Xu’s Braised Shop commercial played three times in a row, but the crowd still felt like they hadn’t seen enough. They especially couldn’t get enough of the steady male voice saying, "A grand prize of ten thousand yuan in cash." After asking Xu An, they learned that the Xu’s Braised Shop ad would air again at 7:30 and 8:00. No longer in a hurry to leave, they chatted and laughed while watching the news, discussing national affairs as they waited for the commercial to play again.