Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

October 19, Wednesday, noon…

Qiao Liang put down the controller, paused the game on the big TV, and went to the door to pick up the takeaway.

Qiao Liang had officially settled down after moving to Jingzhou yesterday. He planned to find his friends in Jingzhou to gather on the weekend since it was a working day today. Boss Pei and the rest should be very busy.

He read the information from his fan group on his cell phone while he ate his Fish-Catching Take-Out.

"Old Qiao, it seems that someone is scamming with Tengda's name; do you want to ask the insiders what is going on?"

"Yes, isn't it corrupting Tengda's reputation?"

"The most outrageous thing is that this person even passed the authentication of Weibo, too deceptive!"

Qiao Liang was stunned.

Someone was using Tengda's name for a scam? That person had also passed the Weibo verification?

So arrogant?

Qiao Liang immediately clicked on the link posted by the fan in the group which jumped to the Weibo page.

"Tengda Ma Yang?

"The verification is… an employee of Tengda Corporation?

"Well… it seems like there is such a person.

"Where did I hear of this person?"

Qiao Liang felt that Ma Yang's name was familiar, but he couldn't remember it for a while.

That was because the department Old Ma was in charge of was not in close contact with the other departments of Tengda. Many people-in-charge of the other departments only knew Ma Yang by name and had never met him in person, let alone Qiao Liang.

"I remember now!

"Wasn't he the one who invested in IOI and profited 500 million yuan for Tengda?

"Is someone acting as an impostor? That's not right; the verification of Weibo shouldn't be wrong, right.

"Then, what is he doing?"

Qiao Liang felt a little confused. If it was Ma Yang, he should be a prominent figure, the right-hand man of Boss Pei and a proper high-level executive of Tengda Corporation.

How could he open a Weibo account with so few fans with such a realistic fake account?

He clicked on Ma Yang's Weibo again and found that there was only one Weibo post from last Saturday, which said that he was randomly helping people fulfill their dreams, but no other posts since.

Four days have passed, and many people have reposted and commented on this Weibo. Moreover, some had even left a QR code for payment, but there seemed to be no follow-up.

That was why they felt that Ma Yang was trying to scam people with Tengda Corporation's name. Many people commented below that he was a liar.

Qiao Liang is a little confused; that shouldn't be the case?

Why would Boss Ma not keep his word?

The person who made 500 million yuan in profits for Boss Pei would not deceive others for tens of thousands of yuan, right?

Qiao Liang carefully looked at these forwarding and comments and found that the content was very simple—nothing more than comments such as 'choose me, choose me' or 'lower the winning rate'.

"Could it be that these people wrote something too simple?"

Qiao Liang suddenly became interested. He reposted this content and wrote his dream in detail.

"Hello Ma, I am a new UP Master who is doing something I love without looking forward to gaining from it, but my fans always say that my microphone is too rubbish. To give my fans a better video viewing experience and to better explain Tengda's games, can you please realize my dream and help reimburse a professional microphone for me? Thank you very much!"

He pasted a QR code for payment as a by-the-way kind of motion.

Qiao Liang didn't care too much after reposting Weibo and continued to eat while drinking.

However, he suddenly realized that Boss Ma replied after he was done with his food!

Amongst a load of 'Aren't you embarrassed to call yourself a new UP Master? Don't you have any shame?' comments, Boss Ma's comment was outstanding like a firefly in the dark.

"Your dream is very good! Unfortunately, I can only help people with less than 1,000 fans complete their dreams! I am very sorry!"

Qiao Liang was stunned, only helping the people with less than 1,000 fans to fulfill their dreams?

What sort of weird rule was that?

It stands to reason that giving to people with more fans, the more heat it would generate, right?

You would seem more like a scammer this way!

Sure enough, many of Teacher Qiao's longtime fans had already started exploding comments following Ma Yang's reply.

"The liar even dared to show up!"

"What strange rule? Discrimination? Can people not have dreams if they have more fans?"

"I fulfill the conditions; why are you ignoring me?"

However, it is clear that some people were inspired by Qiao Liang's Weibo and began to write their dreams seriously.

"Hello, Boss Ma, I am a social animal. I have always wanted to resign, but I can't muster the courage because of economic pressure. I don't want money. I just hope that you can help me refer me to work in Tengda. Thank you very much! Of course, if this is not possible, you can send me some money."

There were also similar replies.

Many of Qiao Liang's fans poured in after he reposted Ma Yang's Weibo. Most people didn't believe it but were still watching; some people still tried their luck.

Unexpectedly, after a few minutes, Ma Yang reposted the comment of the 'social animal' before.

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"I cannot refer you! To join Tengda, you must pass a unified examination which is the company's regulations! But I can sponsor you some money to prepare for exams and purchase materials to review. I have already sent 10,000 yuan. I wish you success!"

The user replied to the Weibo post in no time.

"It's actually real! Thank you, Boss Ma! I'll quit right now to prepare for the exam for Tengda!"

There was also a screenshot of the receipt of the payment below. Of course, some key information was concealed with a mosaic.

Below this Weibo immediately attracted a large number of onlookers.

"What the f*ck? He really sent money?"

"He didn't send money before because my dream was not written in detail?"

"Are you sure? Is it a carefully choreographed scheme?"

"Daddy! Help to realize my dream, too!"

Those who had been chasing and cursing under Ma Yang's Weibo changed their tone in an instant.

While there were still many people who were still skeptical, more people were starting to write serious messages below!

Soon, new content began to appear on Ma Yang's Weibo.

"No matter how hard it is, I can't let my child suffer. It is a good dream to let the child drink assured milk every morning! I have already sent five thousand yuan. Let me know if you need more!"

"Want a Fully-Automated Bickering Machine? That means you are very artistic. I've sent you 500 yuan; go place an order!"

"If you want to work well, you must first have a good body? I have already sent 20,000 yuan; go to a regular hospital for a comprehensive physical examination and buy some nutritional supplements! Also, remind everyone to pay attention to good health!"

The Weibo posts soon received enthusiastic responses from netizens.

"Really received it! Thank you, Boss Ma. I blamed you for the wrong thing, I apologize!"

"Boss Ma, you are really my great benefactor, thank you!"

"Daddy! I have a dream, too. Please help me realize it!"

Qiao Liang was a bit dumbfounded; these netizens really had no morals.

They were just scolding him a second earlier, but their attitude took a 180-degree turn with the money.

However, after careful observation, Qiao Liang found some unusual places.

"The way Mr. Ma pays is a bit unique."

In fact, it was commonplace to engage in lottery draws on Weibo, and some directly made money from it. However, the number was relatively small.

In Qiao Liang's view, everyone played it this way on Weibo for the sake of popularity.

The best way to spend money for popularity was to hold a lucky draw: it spreads quickly, has a high degree of attention, and the whole attention cycle is very long.

Immediately giving money was obviously a lot worse than the attention of the lottery. After all, the lottery has hundreds of entries and would be paid to one person at a time. Moreover, the lottery could last for a month. Giving money would be over immediately, and it will not continue to create heat.

Even if someone used money to buy popularity, most people would choose to give it to celebrities with many fans because it would generate the most heat!

Boss Ma was the exact opposite.

He was not buying any fans. He cherished his words on Weibo, not even defending himself when so many posts were calling him a liar on Weibo. He had been waiting for so many days before he finally made his first payment.

Moreover, Boss Ma seemed to have his own set of standards when selecting people.

No money would be given as long as the number of fans exceeded 1,000. He only gave money to invisible individuals.

He would not give money to those whose messages were too short or empty. Boss Ma was indifferent to even the netizens who called him Daddy unscrupulously, giving money only to those who have good reasons and sincere feelings.

Moreover, it could not be for the same reason, copycats were not accepted.

Moreover, Boss Ma would not reply a single word more no matter how grateful the party who received the money was. It was as though they met, he helped them, and then he forgot about it.

Qiao Liang saw a lot of people who bought popularity on Weibo.

However, people like Boss Ma who spent money without being interested in heat were really rare!

Qiao Liang monitored for a few hours and estimated that the session today had ended when Boss Ma no longer retweeted.

Before the end of the day, Boss Ma finally posted on Weibo: "Today, I helped many friends realize their dreams. I am very happy! I will continue to help my friends realize their dreams in the next few days. Please pay more attention. In addition, from tomorrow I will live-stream my GOG play. I welcome everyone to follow it!"

After sending hundreds of thousands of yuan, his fans had skyrocketed from the original triple digits to tens of thousands in one day.

A lot of people came here for free lunch; they only reposted and commented on his Weibo without following him.

Boss Ma didn't seem to care about this, he didn't ask everyone to pay attention, and he didn't put any restrictions on the people who commented. He just sent money when he saw a satisfactory reply.

As a result, his fans only increased by tens of thousands, after spending hundreds of thousands of yuan. It did not seem to have a very good spread effect; in fact, it was bleeding out in losses.

Qiao Liang couldn't help but wonder that Boss Ma did not seem to understand marketing?

The money spent this way was too inefficient!

The point was that there is no way to distinguish whether these people really needed money or made up stories. Among the hundreds of thousands that have been sent out, some people really need money, but there were certainly people who made up stories to deceive him.

Obviously, he didn't get the essence of Boss Pei's marketing spirit.

However, Qiao Liang changed his mind. Boss Ma was an investment wizard after all; Boss Pei might have given him some advice too so perhaps there were some deeper considerations?

Were there any special considerations for live-streaming GOG tomorrow?

He was actually quite excited about that.

Qiao Liang himself was not eligible to participate because he had too many fans, but he still followed Boss Ma and prepared to continue to pay attention to the development of the situation.