Chapter 116
"This is too much!" Qi Sisi lowered her voice and sat on the sofa in the cafe, holding a cup of smoothie and looking at the chat interface on the mobile phone page, saying angrily.
Zhou Xiao looked up from his photo editing break and saw Qi Sisi, who was suppressing her anger in the coffee shop. He raised his eyebrows and asked, "What's wrong?" She was fine just now, but now she looks like a pissed-off puffer fish after playing with her phone for a while.
"The video that @NINE STAR official Weibo V posted to promote Ji Shao and the others was ganged up on by fans from other groups!" When Qi Sisi relayed Zhu Jian's words in the small group to her, Zhou Xiao frowned as she listened.
This time, it was the remaining six fan groups that were arguing with Huayao about the uneven distribution of resources. Although there were only six groups, according to the information Zhu Jian learned from the fan club, except for Ji Shao, the other two groups were just watching the show.
After all, "Speech Under the Starry Sky" did allow these newcomers to connect with the entertainment industry's connections. Just looking at the mutual following after the show was enough to break many people's defenses. Regarding the fan groupings of mid- and lower-tier fans, the fans of Chu Cheng and Yan Shu also stayed away, fearing that they would be harmed, because everyone knew who was being targeted.
Among them, Chu Cheng and Xiang Rui, Yan Shu and Xu Zhou belong to the same economic company respectively, so this so-called "team spirit" gathering of the six companies is actually equivalent to Ji Shao's family being "isolated".
Seeing the situation wasn't looking good, Zhou Xiaoxian paused the drawing he was almost finishing. He leaned towards Qi Sisi and, using her phone, looked at several other fan requests under the blog post.
As a limited-time group, NINE STAR's access to resources was provided by their current agencies, Huayao Xingyu+ and Blueberry Video. The resources available to the first sub-unit were relatively high-quality, leading to dissatisfaction among several other agencies.
There's still a tendency to cling to convention within the entertainment industry, so for newly debuted artists, access to mid- and high-level connections is a fantastic opportunity. Furthermore, many of the artists participating in this program are already major award winners, and hold considerable status within the industry.
Among the invitations from various programs, Ji Shao, who debuted as the center, was undoubtedly the most popular at this time. For a program like this, if it weren't for Blueberry Video itself, it wouldn't be a 1+N format with the center at the top, but instead would only invite the top performer.
This is the hidden benefit behind the first place in the talent show, and why fans are so eager to help the trainees they pick to compete for the top spot. The first place has the most opportunities to be seen by others, and has the highest commercial value among the same level.
In order to make their artists gain more popularity in the group, each agency is trying hard to grab a piece of meat from Xincheng, also known as Ji Shao.
"Oh my god, the fan club has already confirmed that Chu Cheng and Yan Shu will not participate in controlling the comments." Qi Sisi looked at Zhu Jian's reply that popped up in the window, and then saw that the highest number of likes in the comment section had reached more than 8,000. She couldn't help but silently curse the other brokerage companies and fans in her heart.
For Ji Shao fans, although many of them have become indifferent after the end of Star 101, when faced with this situation now, they are not clay men who will allow others to use them as stepping stones.
In less than half an hour, Ji Shao fans began to appear in the front row of @NINE STAR's official Weibo account. As time passed, the number of likes in the front row reached a peak of 13,000. Of these ten front row posts, Ji Shao fans accounted for eight of the top six comments.
Every time Ji Shao surpassed someone, it was an encouragement for his fans. Just as Qi Sisi was about to take a screenshot of the ninth comment that was about to be promoted and post it on the super topic, she refreshed her blog and found that her own comment, which was originally in the top three, had disappeared directly from the front row.
Qi Sisi recognized the IDs of the three followers; they were frequent comment manipulation fans. Puzzled, she searched her followers and found the Weibo account of one of them. Just as she was about to ask them what was going on, she discovered that the fan had already posted a blog post on the homepage.
@JS-纪韶V: If you want to control the comments, just control them properly, don't use such shady tricks! You gave me 10,000 garbage likes and then tried to buy me garbage followers to ruin my account. Isn't that disgusting?
[picture]
The picture above is two images put together. One shows the likes for the original hot comment, which are all from junk accounts with random nicknames, like the default spam accounts of the system. The other one shows the latest followers, and like the likes, they are all spam accounts.
[Wow, I was wondering why I couldn’t see you JS, it turns out you were given a bunch of spam likes]
[I thought I was seeing things, watching your popularity drop, then refreshing and it was gone...]
[You're not the only one who got drunk, many people in the front row fell down [disgusting]]
[It's really hard to describe these people. Even if they unite, they can't control them. Why do they still have to resort to such tactics?]
【……】
"Xiaoxiao, are you going to post this picture?" Qi Sisi watched as her biggest fan on Weibo was already urging fans to control the comments again. She turned to look at Zhou Xiao. She wasn't sure if posting the picture at this time would affect everyone's control of the comments, and she was also worried that Zhou Xiao would be criticized for posting at this time.
"Send! Why not?" Zhou Xiao flexed his wrist, finishing the last part. Then, he switched his account on a certain blog to "Pan Ran Xin Dong," edited the post, and with a flick of his slender fingers, he sent the edited photo along with the text.
——A certain blog——
@FlippedPangranxindong·Ji Shao: #Ji Shao Chaohua# One hot comment and one photo [to be edited]
[picture]
The picture shows Ji Shao turning his head to look at the two members behind him when he came on stage. The lights on the stage hit him from above. The light and shadow reflected on his face are matched with Ji Shao's drooping eyes, which creates a full atmosphere.
My sister has spoken!!!
[I am really impressed, so handsome! (Xindong Jie and Shao Zi are both so handsome)
[Ah! Family members, each hot comment gets a photo! Go go go!]
[Oh my god, I feel my blood boiling right now, I'm going back to switch accounts and salvage it!]
My sister died of a cow
[Working is already annoying! Meeting idiots is even more annoying! Being spammed with comments is even more annoying! But when I saw the post about Ji Shao from the teacher, my adrenaline shot up! My energy instantly returned!]
【……】
This comment manipulation war lasted from the afternoon until the evening. After Ji Shao's fans noticed they were being spammed with likes again and again, they retaliated with their own tactics. It was basically a one-on-one situation. The accounts of Ji Shao's family that made it to the front row had already been flooded with likes. By the end, the only ones left were those of small fans.
Initially, some people sent private messages to Zhou Xiao with screenshots of popular comments. By the end, everyone had become so addicted to controlling the comments that they'd forgotten about it. And tonight, many outsiders were also watching the comments. It was then that everyone truly realized that the traffic situation in the domestic entertainment industry was about to change.
For the fans of the industry, the previous control of comments between their own and rival families seemed like a minor quarrel under this wave of control. There was no need to mention Ji Shao's family. It turned out that the C position who debuted with a huge gap had such a strong control ability of comments. It was really terrifying.
The speed and frequency of likes for several other accounts were also astonishingly high compared to their own. One person had at least ten fake accounts, which was no joke. This also served as a benchmark for future conflicts between fans of NINE STAR members and those in the industry, deciding whether to confront them head-on or just swallow their anger.
…
[Star Path 101 Production Team × Huayao Star Entertainment+]
When Lin Qianxia saw several fan clubs banding together to cause trouble in the official Weibo comment section that afternoon, she initially didn't take it seriously. She simply told the official Weibo account to refrain from replying or posting anything, and to wait until they had enough fun.
But the comments section escalated unexpectedly, with some fans even tagging the official Weibo account under other trending search terms, demanding fairness. Lin Qianxia was speechless about this behavior, but she didn't want to pay any attention. It only served to expose your inappropriate behavior as a fan of someone else, reinforcing a negative impression of the fandom. It was truly foolish.
When she was called back by the official blogger, it was someone from the official blogger's office who was questioning Huayao. Lin Qianxia paused, pulled out her phone, checked the "battle status," and was surprised by the final data.
The official account's promotional post had already garnered nearly 100,000 reposts in the comments section, all driven by influential followers of each account, who encouraged their own followers to repost it to increase its weight. The tens of thousands of comments in the comments section were fine, but what surprised her most was the total number of likes. The combined number of internal and external likes had already exceeded one million, making it a significant topic of public opinion on the platform.
They were well aware of the inner workings of the various management companies. When the six fan clubs were pressuring them in the group chat, they had considered issuing a statement on the official Weibo account. They had already drafted a statement, but it was ultimately blocked by Zong Zhengqian.
Lin Qianxia still remembered Zong Zhengqian's words at the time, "Let them resolve this matter internally. If the top team can't suppress those behind them, this data will naturally make the brand consider a more diverse small team model."
Huayao actually prefers to see a situation where no one team dominates. Once a group becomes overly dependent on a certain member, the first thing the agency should do is weaken the team and distribute more resources to other members of the group.
As a newly formed and highly sought-after boy band, Huayao has recently received numerous endorsement offers from brands. Without exception, they only wanted Ji Shao, a condition that many brands agreed to given Huayao's unwavering commitment to "1+N" support. As for those who were adamantly unwilling to hire so many, the company simply offered them exorbitant endorsement fees.
"Thank you for your hard work tonight," Lin Qianxia said to the operations manager after reading the comments. "Please release the first preview of the group variety show at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning."
If they wanted to divert everyone's attention, they just had to introduce another incident. Lin Qianxia suspected that today's fan manipulation would definitely be discussed internally by the various organizations. As Zong Zong had said, as long as there wasn't a large-scale conflict that attracted attention from above, they didn't need to suffer any consequences.
But to wrap things up, they'll need something new to distract from the show. Aren't fans frustrated by their idols' invisibility? Let them all post a series of selfies tonight to appease their fans, and a group variety show trailer tomorrow to satisfy their frustrations. Besides, it's time to announce the dinner they just agreed to with their old friend, Vogue, to reassure the fans. The red carpet is easy, but the dinner is hard to keep. Hopefully, fans will appreciate the hard work they've put in.
At the same time, Zhou Xiao received a prompt from the system -
[Ding! NINE STAR Fashion Gala event detected, automatically issuing 1 red carpet ticket and 1 gala dinner ticket]
Zhou Xiao raised an eyebrow, not particularly surprised by the notification. Ever since she'd heard about the September 13th Fashion event, she'd been pretty certain NINE STAR would be invited. After all, as their first magazine cover collaboration with Star 101, they should be invited to this event. But for some reason, she hadn't received a notification from the system yet. It seemed like this wasn't going to be that simple.
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