Chapter 398: Chapter 398 This is Too Dirty l

Translator: 549690339

Ally received Jiang Xu’s orders and immediately set out to execute them.

Soon, on all major platforms.

Weibo, blogs, and forums were simultaneously flooded with a software advertisement.

[Huohuo Free Novels, official free reading software, enjoy free books for five hundred years, and get cash red envelopes]!

As Zhang Xiaofeng started poaching authors and editors from the Nuomimi Novel site, Jiang Xu secretly undertook two initiatives.

One was spending two billion to buy out the copyrights of novels from his own site as well as other sites, selecting those of decent quality and length.

There were about a hundred thousand titles, covering various genres.

At the same time, he had a new reading software developed, incorporating some features that did not yet exist.

Checking in, reading for a certain amount of time, or watching an advertisement would earn users coins.

A certain number of coins could be exchanged for payment to Zhi Bao or directly used to recharge phone credit.

This tactic was basically unused by businesses at present.

In another five or six years, it would become quite common.

The most representative were some Qie and some Mao, who, using this tactic, became the big brother and second-in-command in the free novel realm.

Their daily active users were several hundreds of millions, tens of millions, with a considerable annual profit.

The free novel market mainly targeted the rural areas.

Those in villages or small towns, who were jobless, bored at home, elders, and aunts.

As well as students who were still studying and lacked financial resources.

Especially the students.

Broke and eager to read novels, Jiang Xu’s software was the obvious choice.

Clean and safe, no fear of viruses, and a substantial library.

Reading could even earn a bit of money for drinks and the like.

This approach had been proven feasible by companies in his past life.

Initially, Jiang Xu hadn’t planned to play this card so soon.

But his adversary was too formidable.

Being less funded than the opposition, a head-on clash would be unwise.

You want to compete with me for market share, huh?

Well then, fine, I’ll just switch tracks.

Free and paid user groups, I’ve got them both in my hands.

Zhang Xiaofeng, trying to keep up, couldn’t achieve this in the short term.

The total library of the novel websites he had acquired wasn’t even comparable to what Jiang Xu had on hand.

As for quality, there was even less need to mention.

With novels, no matter how much money you pour into them, they require time to conceive and write; it’s not an overnight process.

Jiang Xu also promoted it on his social media.

He even mobilized all his friends and classmates.

Huohuo Free Novels, on its first day online, garnered a download count of five million two hundred thousand.

This novel model was intriguing to many.

Free novels and money to boot, where else would one find such a deal?

Furthermore, Jiang Xu moved five of his own novels over to the new app, setting them as free.

They were used as a flagship to drive traffic.

Jiang Xu watched the backend data.

It wasn’t too far off from what he had anticipated.

The average retention time for each user was over fifty minutes.

The initial investment was, in fact, not substantial.

In this race, Jiang Xu was the king for now, with no one to challenge him.

And as advertisers saw the promising data, they would increase their ad spend, forming a positive cycle.

Jiang Xu’s gaze turned toward the window, glinting with contemplation, he mused to himself, “Zhang Xiaofeng, how will you respond now?”

Zhang Xiaofeng looked at the report in his hand and sighed, “I still underestimated Jiang Xu, the younger generation is indeed to be feared.”

As for the TV and film industry, it seems that he has the upper hand for now.

But Zhang Xiaofeng knew that was because he had poured a lot of money into it.

Did Jiang Xu have influence?

He definitely did, but it was not as significant as the outside world imagined.

Because the production costs for the TV and film works under Jiang Xu’s company were very low.

For the same TV series, other companies might spend hundreds of millions just on the actors’ salaries.

But Jiang Xu’s company, the total salaries for the artists, all added up, would not exceed twenty million.

So even if all ten TV and film works were a flop, Jiang Xu wouldn’t actually lose much money.

Here’s a simple analogy.

Jiang Xu might lose ten yuan, while the competitors would lose a thousand yuan.

Even if the competitors had abundant funds, they couldn’t withstand such a crazy burn rate.

We are now actually at a very critical juncture.

It’s just a matter of seeing who can’t hold on first.

Zhang Xiaofeng’s secretary whispered, “Boss, I spent a lot of money to find out about the situation on Jiang Xu’s side.

We are fighting for the market, burning cash like crazy.

But Jiang Xu, he is now losing maybe ten or twenty million a day on TV and film, and the novel side has already started making a profit.”

Free things, to capture the market, are truly unstoppable.

In this era, smartphones have just started to emerge, and their performance is not particularly strong.

Besides making calls, surfing the web, and playing small games, the greatest use of a mobile phone is to read novels.

It can be said that from last year to the next three or five years, it is the golden age of the novel industry.

Who knows how many people who could only work in factories for life have changed their fates and now own assets worth millions or tens of millions.

Zhang Xiaofeng rubbed his temples and said a bit wearily, “Can we follow suit with his model?”

“I’m afraid not,” the secretary shook his head, “I’ve analyzed and researched it thoroughly.

Jiang Xu’s free version of the app has a library of over a hundred thousand books, and their quality is not low.”

We’ve acquired so many websites, and together, our library also has over a hundred thousand books.

But the problem is, our authors don’t want to go free, because there’s no guarantee.

The vast majority of authors have stated that as soon as we offer our content for free, they’ll stop updating immediately.”

After hearing this, Zhang Xiaofeng remained silent for a long time.

He had originally thought Jiang Xu was just a lucky guy who relied on An Feng and some luck to achieve his current status.

But it seems he was greatly mistaken.

This kid is even more daring than he was at a younger age.

“So, boss…” the secretary asked cautiously, “What should we do next?”

Anyway, he was out of ideas.

Unable to beat him nor kill him, just totally screwed.

Zhang Xiaofeng spoke gravely, “Call my youngest daughter.”

“Huh?” The secretary was puzzled, “Boss, isn’t the third miss still in university? How could she solve this problem?”

Zhang Xiaofeng said, “No, I want her to try and see if she can lure Jiang Xu to become my son-in-law.”

“???” The secretary’s mind was filled with question marks, then he silently gave a thumbs-up, “Boss, that’s brilliant, genius indeed.”

“Wait.” Zhang Xiaofeng furrowed his brows, his expression changing, “Also get in touch with my eldest daughter and second daughter. Have all three daughters work on this.

You must bring that kid Jiang Xu into our fold!”

Inside the secretary’s head: “Genius.”

On the other side, Jiang Xu had no idea that Zhang Xiaofeng was planning to use such a ‘dirty’ tactic against him.

He was