Chapter 174: The Flames of War Spread Outwards

Words : 1850 Updated : Sep 21st, 2025

"Wait until Douyin spends all the money in its account, then raise another 10 million US dollars," Lu Liang sighed helplessly, suddenly understanding what it meant to be burdened by fame; this was the burden of fame. Fame is a double-edged sword, you can call to arms and countless people will charge with you, but everything you want to do is scrutinized. Moving quietly into the village, no gunslinging needed. That would be basically impossible from now on, either lay the groundwork in advance, or go in openly. "No problem." Shen Peng was all smiles, in a very good mood. Not only the netizens wanted to make a fortune with Lu Liang, but they also wanted to join him in making big money. Now, even if Lu Liang said poop was chocolate flavor, there would probably be people who couldn't resist trying it out. The caveat was that Lu Liang needed to taste it first. Just like Douyin now. ByteDance is strong, experienced, and has the technology, but the probability of it dominating the original video market is definitely not as high as that of Old England leaving the EU. Old England leaving the EU, such a low-probability event, yet Lu Liang dared to use all his capital, even deploying at least ten times leverage. Call him a gambler or a maniac, but he bet right, and so far, he hasn't lost a single time. Once or twice could be good luck, but five or six times, it's about strength, so Shen Peng and Zhu Hu are willing to play along with Lu Liang. After a few days, three institutions pooled together 10 million US dollars and injected it into Douyin, resulting in a reallocation of shares. Lu Liang invested 3.4 million US dollars, his 34% stake remained unchanged. Golden Sand River invested 3.52 million, and Redwood invested 3.08 million US dollars, each holding 16% and 14% stakes respectively. Yang Zhenyuan's 51% ownership could have remained undiluted, but he couldn't come up with 5.1 million US dollars. Fortunately, after dilution, he still held 36% of the shares, still the largest shareholder of Douyin. Lu Liang's lips curved into a smile as he murmured to himself, "After the next round of financing, Douyin will take the Lu surname." He could have actually taken over Yang Zhenyuan's diluted shares, but there was no need. Once he became Douyin's major shareholder, Yang Zhenyuan would probably be wary of making any abrupt moves. Lu Liang didn't want Douyin to become another ofo, and moreover, Shen Peng and Zhu Hu invested in Douyin again because they trusted him. Having the shares in their hands was no different than in Lu Liang's; it just meant earning a little less in the future. Another critical point was that both Redwood and Golden Sand River were Byte's shareholders. When Zhang Yiming didn't want to make peace, Shen Peng and Zhu Hu would also push his head down and facilitate a merger of both parties. Ever since Douyin received the ten million dollars, it suddenly became aggressive, no longer shrinking back, but taking the initiative to strike. Increasing offers and quantity, it launched a billion-yuan creator incentive plan and then lifted the medium video restrictions, directly targeting Watermelon. For a time, it went back and forth with Watermelon, and the battle gradually spread throughout the original video industry. When the big dog fights the second, sometimes it's the third that gets killed – this happens often in the business world. Because the third party, while eating popcorn and watching the drama, fails to realize that the first and second's user growth comes from sucking the third's blood. Watermelon is not the industry leader, nor is Douyin the second in line, but nobody wants to become the third, drained by others. Therefore, Kuai Shou and Bilibili also refuse to show weakness, launching their billion-yuan creator incentive plans overnight. One after another, all claiming to invest a billion yuan. But how much they actually invested, outsiders wouldn't know. However, outsiders saw that the self-media bloggers' spring seemed to have arrived. Because the published videos were free content, they basically didn't involve product promotion; uploading a video onto four platforms and benefiting from all four was basic practice. One day, a blogger couldn't resist sharing their earnings, revealing that a video with over 100,000 views on four platforms had a total revenue exceeding 4,000 yuan. Once announced, it caused a sensation across the internet; overnight, self-media became the hottest emerging profession. Soon, the war of self-media spread beyond the industry. It's said anybody could enter the self-media industry, but at the very least, a slightly clearer imaging device was needed for shooting. OPPO was the first to react since they specialized in photography smartphones. They caught this lucrative wave perfectly and launched the R9 model. That month's sales, beating Apple and kicking Xiaomi, made Chen Mingyong's mouth crooked with joy; fortune had fallen from the sky while he sat at home. Seeing this, other smartphone brands panicked. Although the autumn launch was still half a year away, they rallied and joined the fray with this year's new models. If need be, they'd develop another new phone in the fall. Even if they couldn't catch this immense wave of wealth, they definitely couldn't let OPPO shine alone. Because since the advent of the smartphone era, it's been difficult to innovate upon existing functionalities, with the only option being to optimize and re-optimize them. Camera capabilities became almost the unanimous next target for all smartphone manufacturers, also serving as the entry ticket to the high-end flagship market. If OPPO captured all this traffic wave, from then on, when people thought of camera phones, they'd think only of OPPO. Then they'd be eating dust. "Mr. Lu, everyone in our competitor's chat group is cursing you," Lei Jun couldn't help but complain in the group. Lu Liang couldn't help but laugh and cry, "Then, Mr. Lei, did you curse me too?" He hadn't expected that merely backing Douyin and Watermelon would spark a wildfire on the grassland in the dry season. The fire grew more and more uncontrollable, spreading across the country and affecting the mobile phone industry. Lei Jun was silent for a long while, then sent a sighing emoji, "I should be the one who cursed you the most." "???" Lu Liang was utterly confused. Not until the next day, when the entire internet was abuzz with Xiaomi's newly introduced concept phone, did he understand why Lei Jun had said that. The Xiaomi MIX, the world's first full-screen phone, featuring a front side devoid of physical buttons, an astounding 91.3% screen-to-body ratio, and a visually stunning ceramic body design. Upon its release, it caused a national sensation. "Xiaomi's ambition isn't ordinary at all." Lu Liang was shocked, finding it much better looking than the Apple 6s, and thinking he should probably avoid Lei Jun next time, lest he get beaten up. After all, such an epoch-making phone was likely scheduled to debut at the end of the year to impact the high-end flagship market, but it got leaked so much sooner. Even he felt a bit regretful. In the meantime, the online discussions were rampant. However, when netizens discussed how much longer Xiaomi MIX would be playing monkey tricks on them, they always brought up Lu Liang. "Tsk tsk, at that time and at this moment, who could have imagined they'd be so alike?" "It's uncannily similar. This situation is just like last year's bike-sharing craze, sparked by Lu Liang's first shot, which then suddenly swept the nation." "This guy has a strong knack for causing trouble. I'm quite looking forward to electric cars now. When will Lu Liang step in?" "Don't even think about new energy vehicles without three to five years, that's just the R&D cycle. Bike sharing had quick success because it's simple to manufacture, and the smartphone market is already a battlefield of many contenders." A netizen with keen insight spoke the truth. But one had to admire Lu Liang's ability to attract traffic. In whichever industry, he could stir great waves. Wang Xiaocong's position as the top internet celebrity in the country might be overtaken, especially since without Wanda, Little Wang is nothing. In contrast, Lu Liang rose to prominence in an era where grassroots success stories are nearly extinct, always making a big splash. Battling in the original video content sector, he could even spread the war to the smartphone arena; it was as if absurdity's mother opened the door to more absurdity, bringing absurdity right to home. At this moment, in Beijing, ByteDance. Zhang Yiming narrowed his eyes, muttering to himself, "Does he really want to go head-to-head with us, or is he just looking to sell at a good price?" He couldn't quite understand Lu Liang's actions. After all, causing such a commotion, if it was just to negotiate a truce, seemed like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. But if it wasn't for negotiating a settlement, What was Lu Liang's purpose? Could he truly believe that Douyin could beat Watermelon? Although Yang Zhenyuan poached quite a few engineers, Byte's R&D team was centered around him. As long as Zhang Yiming was there, Byte would always be able to perform dimensionality reduction attacks on Douyin on the algorithmic technology level. He suddenly felt lost. After much thought, he decided to call Zhu Hu, planning to gauge Lu Liang's intentions through him. If it was to grow the market, then everyone should just focus on doing well, instead of this life-or-death struggle. Why not just merge when the time is right. Zhu Hu laughed, "I don't know what he's thinking either; I just feel that he has good judgment, so I'm just playing along." "…" Zhang Yiming was at a loss for words, but Zhu Hu added, "Why think too much? If you don't understand, just ask him directly." Zhu Hu said, "In a few days, Li Xiang Auto will be securing funding, and he should come to Beijing. I can set up a meeting for you guys to have a good chat, how about that?" Zhang Yiming pondered for a long while, "Thank you, Mr. Zhu. I'll personally seek out Mr. Lu and ask him then." S~eaʀᴄh the Novelƒire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Lu Liang had money, but Byte didn't; every penny of theirs was earmarked for a specific purpose. If it's about playing with technology, Zhang Yiming is confident to push them all in together, but when it comes to capital, they really can't compete with Lu Liang.

Chapter 174: The Flames of War Spread Outwards

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