"This is the video's popularity data," Chen Wei handed her the printed materials.
Ye Zhi glanced at it, and the situation was much as she had guessed.
The video the housekeeper had found last night, with their covert promotion, was now a sensation across the internet, spreading on major forums and social platforms.
This had also boosted the popularity of several other videos and sparked widespread discussion. Topics like "raising prices before offering discounts" and "cheating loyal customers" had even trended.
"The popularity of these videos has also prompted other video creators to spontaneously make videos to piggyback on the trend," Chen Wei said. "There are also quite a few videos comparing us with Taoxun. Our reputation is excellent now, attracting many new users. Furthermore, because Qianbai was cheating its loyal customers, many high-spending Qianbai users have switched to us, and they've even made retaliatory purchases, significantly increasing our sales compared to yesterday."
Ye Zhi was stunned. It could be like this?
This time, she really had to thank Ou Minghan. In fact, if he had started spending real money, it would have come down to a battle of financial resources between them.
But Ou Minghan insisted on being so stingy, unwilling to spend money yet wanting benefits, treating others like fools. This was precisely what had caused such widespread backlash.
Because of this, Ye Zhi had achieved excellent marketing results at a very low cost. This was truly a huge victory.
"Very good," Ye Zhi nodded. "You must stabilize the website. No matter what happens, the user shopping experience absolutely cannot be affected. Also, the merchants on Qianbai will surely cause trouble. I believe many merchants will come to us to open online stores during this time. Notify the business department to work hard for the next couple of days, and I'll give them compensatory leave once we hire more staff."
After speaking, Ye Zhi stood up and headed for the door.
"Are you going out, President Ye?" Chen Wei asked.
"Yes, these few days are too important for us," Ye Zhi said. "I'm going to visit our partner courier companies to ensure the efficiency and safety of our website's deliveries. If there's anything urgent, call me directly."
Chen Wei quickly agreed.
*
Ou Minghan arrived at Qi Corporation again. Qi Xuan naturally refused to see him.
In the reception room, Feng Jie, standing nearby, was secretly yawning, feeling utterly miserable. He had been called to work overtime by Ou Minghan again last night, and now he felt lightheaded.
Suddenly, his phone rang again. Feng Jie's expression immediately soured. What he feared most now was hearing his phone ring, as it never brought any good news.
Seeing Ou Minghan glare at him, he quickly walked out of the reception room to answer the call.
Soon, he walked back in with a grim expression. "President, no..."
Ou Minghan's sharp gaze shot towards him. Feng Jie, startled, immediately swallowed the other two words.
He said hesitantly, "President, there are some videos online that are unfavorable to the company..."
In fact, they had noticed these videos last night. However, because the videos were too pointed, they felt guilty and didn't address them, nor did they dare to tell Ou Minghan.
But who knew that the situation would escalate, and they could no longer hide it.
After Feng Jie finished speaking, Ou Minghan said displeasantly, "Is this a trivial matter that requires me to be informed? Immediately spend money to have those forums delete the videos. If they don't, send them lawyer's letters!"
Feng Jie hesitated to speak. The videos denouncing their current promotion were all over the internet. Could they possibly delete them all? However, Ou Minghan had always been autocratic, so he naturally didn't dare to object.
"President, the videos aren't the main issue," Feng Jie continued to explain. "Our company's reputation online is very bad. Many users have been swayed by public opinion, saying we're exploiting them. Quite a few users have already deactivated their accounts! And someone came up with a method, calling on other users who haven't deactivated to request invoices for old orders..."
Ou Minghan's expression grew increasingly grim. He roared directly, "Why didn't you say so earlier?!"
Feng Jie immediately lowered his head. How could he have said it earlier?
Ou Minghan had become increasingly moody and erratic, often calling them to work overtime in the middle of the night.
If not for the severe user loss, they had intended to keep hiding it from Ou Minghan. After all, being criticized in a few videos wouldn't cause them to lose any flesh.
"Also," Feng Jie mustered his courage and continued, "many merchants are also demanding to withdraw from this promotion. If they aren't allowed to withdraw, they'll close their shops..."
Ou Minghan's face became darker and darker. He was truly facing enemies on all sides!
Normally, he would have made those who dared to threaten him pay the price! But now, users were already leaving, and he couldn't afford to lose merchants as well.
In fact, he knew how to solve the current predicament: spend money. However, Qi Xuan still refused to see him. Did he expect Ou Minghan to spend his own money?
Thinking of this, Ou Minghan inexplicably began to miss Zhou Cheng Yuan.
If Zhou Cheng Yuan were still around, he wouldn't be so passive and could spend Zhou Cheng Yuan's money. He now deeply regretted not keeping Zhou Cheng Yuan when he wanted to go abroad.
"President," Feng Jie asked tentatively, "should we keep waiting?"
"Waiting for what?!" Ou Minghan said impatiently. "Let's go back to the company!"
Ou Minghan spent the entire day in meetings and ultimately, albeit reluctantly, decided to spend money.
To appease the merchants, he had to emulate Ye Zhi and personally subsidize the coupons. For the users, Ou Minghan instructed the public relations department to issue a very sincere apology.
The general idea was that due to this being their first time organizing such an event, they lacked experience, which led to numerous issues. However, they had made corrections and reissued coupons to users, promising that situations where prices were raised before an event would never happen again. Moreover, this was merely the warm-up for the event; when Qianbai's mobile application officially launched, there would be even greater promotional activities.
This announcement was quite sincere, but it was still met with ridicule. It's like realizing the need to turn after crashing into a wall, or buying stocks after they've gone up – too late!
However, because Qianbai offered tangible discounts this time, despite setting up very complex coupon rules, many people accepted them. Additionally, Ou Minghan spent a large sum of money to suppress trending topics, and the voices criticizing Qianbai quieted down considerably.
Ye Zhi had been busy all day, visiting the headquarters of several courier companies. She only found out about this matter late at night.
She wasn't too surprised. If Ou Minghan had stubbornly refused to spend money and allowed the situation to worsen, Ye Zhi would have truly questioned how he had managed to run such a large company.