Chapter 797 - 392: Chen Jincheng Lost 1.2 Billion

Chapter 797: Chapter 392: Chen Jincheng Lost 1.2 Billion

’What a mess.’

「The night passed.」

Early the next morning, Huang Zhen got up in a hurry and went to the office. He instructed his assistant to bring him the latest data immediately.

When the assistant delivered the data, his expression was grim. "President Huang, the situation is even worse than yesterday."

Huang Zhen took one look at the data, his hands trembling. The numbers on the page were jarring.

Their show’s average online viewership per episode had plummeted to just 35 million. It was a complete nosedive.

The television ratings had even dropped to a mere 0.79.

This made him slump into his chair, utterly defeated.

Having been in this business for so long, he knew full well that these numbers would only get uglier.

This was what happened when word-of-mouth collapsed. It was beyond anyone’s power to change.

He immediately looked at the data for *All is Well*. Its television ratings had already reached 1.93, making it a sure thing to break 2.0.

The key thing was that *All is Well*’s numbers on Er Shi Xingchen Film and Television had soared again, with average viewership per episode jumping to 80 million. That figure was what Huang Zhen’s show, *Taking Dad to Study Abroad*, had gotten for its premiere. Now, his show was down to just 35 million.

The assistant frowned. "President Huang, the internet is flooded with rave reviews for *All is Well*. On Tiao Yin especially, everyone is hyping it. You just have to scroll through a few videos to find related highlight channels. *All is Well* will definitely break an average of 100 million views per episode soon."

"Second-Life Star is definitely going to see a huge spike in daily active users from this."

Huang Zhen was well aware of this. Second Life Star Film and Television Network was about to make a massive profit.

But now, he was powerless to change anything.

Who could have predicted that *All is Well* would just blow up like this?

The internet was indeed dominated by trending topics related to *All is Well*. Soon, highlight channels even started cutting together clips showing the latest data from the three competing shows.

Thanks to all the hype, almost everyone had now heard of the show *All is Well*.

And by now, it was basically a consensus in the industry that *All is Well* would definitely break a 2.0 rating and surpass 100 million online views.

「As time passed, night fell.」 The streamers on Second-Life Star scheduled for this time slot all started their broadcasts.

Many fans who followed Second-Life Star’s streamers flocked to their channels.

Zhang Xiang was a long-time fan of Second-Life Star and had been watching Chen Jincheng’s streams from the very beginning.

However, Chen Jincheng rarely streamed, so he would occasionally watch other influencers from Second-Life Star.

But he would get tired of watching the female influencers, and it would slow down his reaction time in *League of Legends*. Luckily, Second-Life Star later signed PPD, a *League of Legends* streamer, so he would often tune in to PPD’s streams.

Besides, the guy’s gaming streams were genuinely entertaining.

But when he tuned in today, he found that PPD wasn’t streaming games. Instead, he was just chatting. "Bros, I’m super tired today, not in the zone, so no *League of Legends*. Hope you guys understand. Let’s watch a show together instead!"

Then, Zhang Xiang watched as PPD opened the Second Life Star Film and Television Network, clicked on *All is Well* on the main banner, and started playing it.

He didn’t forget to add, "I’ve heard this show is amazing. The internet is full of recommendations for it right now."

’So this PPD is playing corporate shill now, huh?’ Zhang Xiang thought.

’Everyone knows your boss, Chen Jincheng, is the one who bought *All is Well*.’

Sure enough, he wasn’t the only one who noticed. The entire bullet comment stream was instantly flooded with the word "Promo."

Everyone knew what PPD was up to. He was clearly eager to impress. One by one, they started teasing him.

Faced with the teasing, PPD coughed. "You all think I’m that kind of person? What do you mean, ’promo’? How is this a promo? This show is just genuinely good, and I’m not in the mood to play. Come on, watch it with me."

He had to be kidding. Of course he was going to go all out on the promo.

After he signed with Second-Life Star to stream on Tiao Yin, Sister Hong had pushed resources his way. Now his daily streams attracted over 50,000 viewers, which was leagues more than he ever had on Black Cat TV.

Moreover, Sister Hong had promised to promote him into the number one streamer in the *League of Legends* category, which meant at least 100,000+ viewers.

So, when Sister Hong told him to promote *All is Well*, he was naturally going to give it his all.

Zhang Xiang was fucking speechless. ’These Second-Life Star people are all so damn stubborn, just like Chen Jincheng. And speaking of Chen Jincheng, if you don’t slap a video of him sleeping with a girl in his face, he’ll swear he’s fucking single forever.’

It wasn’t just PPD. That evening, everyone noticed that all of Second-Life Star’s influencers who went live were doing a collective promotional push, all of them streaming themselves watching *All is Well*.

This was, naturally, Sister Hong’s arrangement.

The reason was simple: the new episodes of *All is Well* being released today were for VIP members only. This directly affected the revenue of the Second Life Star Film and Television Network.

Therefore, she naturally had to arrange for people to promote it.

Many of the female influencers even put on an enthusiastic show. "This show, *All is Well*, is so good! I can’t wait. I’m going to subscribe to VIP right now so I can watch the new episodes the second they’re released tonight."

They then put on a stiff, ad-like demonstration of the Second Life Star Film and Television Network’s subscription page, showing options like auto-renew, monthly subscription, and SVIP activation, with an average price of 30 yuan per month.

Was this kind of promotion effective?

Absolutely.

As the number one MCN, Second-Life Star had an immense number of viewers tuning in and out of their influencers’ streams every day. This ensured that a huge audience would see the promotion.

It was an excellent wave of publicity.

Following this wave of promotion from Second-Life Star, online hype surged. It instantly re-engaged a specific group of people: those who had claimed a free quarterly membership on the Second Life Star Film and Television Network because of the game *Game Over! I’m Surrounded by Beauties!*.

At that time, between actual gamers and people who were just drawn in by the spectacle, over 40 million free memberships had been claimed.

Those who had joined in on the fun back then had claimed the membership with a "never pass up a freebie" mentality, never expecting they would actually use it. This was especially true for those who were now watching *All is Well*.

It was an unexpected, pleasant surprise.

Even those who hadn’t started the show would likely think, ’I have a membership, might as well watch it,’ and contribute to the view count.

Soon, the clock struck midnight.

But the employees of the Second Life Star Film and Television Network, led by Sun Ji, had been working overtime until this very moment.

The VIP access for *All is Well* was about to go live, meaning only members of the Second Life Star Film and Television Network could watch the new episodes.

Non-members would have to subscribe.

So, as soon as the two new episodes were released, Sun Ji had his team start tracking the numbers. An hour later, an assistant reported to him, "President Sun, we have the data for the first hour of release."

"How many?" Sun Ji asked hurriedly.

The assistant explained, "Over 3 million people have subscribed to a membership."

Hearing this, Sun Ji couldn’t help but clench his fist. "Good. That meets expectations. At this rate, we should end up with an increase of 15 million members."

An increase of 15 million members would be roughly 450 million yuan in revenue.

For a blockbuster show, was an increase of only 15 million new members a lot?

Absolutely not. In fact, it was very few, pathetically so.

But there was nothing to be done about it. They had already given away 40 million free quarterly memberships, all of which could be used to watch this show for free.

Of course, while the revenue was lower, the member activity data would see a huge boost.

Higher member activity would bring greater advantages in future negotiations for content rights and advertising deals.

Therefore, he found himself admiring his boss more and more. With just one show, *All is Well*, he had not only outmaneuvered two other streaming platforms but also secured enormous benefits for his own company.

「The next day arrived.」

As usual, Huang Zhen went to the office early, though not because he was concerned about *Taking Dad to Study Abroad*.

The show was what it was. He had given up on it and handed it off to someone else. It was better to focus on the future.

However, he still kept an eye on the online news. It was too painful not to.

Especially when he thought about the explosive success of *All is Well*, which Chen Jincheng had bought.

But as soon as he went online today, he was suddenly confronted by the same trending topic on every major platform:

"This Time, That Weirdo Chen Jincheng Lost 1.2 Billion!"

"???" Huang Zhen froze.

’How did Chen Jincheng lose 1.2 billion?’

’What has he done now?’

But regardless of the reason, the sight of Chen Jincheng losing money made him ecstatic. He immediately clicked on the trending topic with eager anticipation.

Elsewhere, Lin Dong, the head of iQiyi, felt the same. He had lost a lot of face because of Chen Jincheng, so seeing that Chen Jincheng had somehow lost 1.2 billion, for whatever reason, was a delightful piece of news.

However, as both men clicked on the news story, eager to watch the drama unfold, they were both left with dumbfounded expressions.