The better the reputation of a project, the greater the bonus employees would obtain. Even for a project like Coming Out of the Cocoon as a Butterfly which incurred losses, employees could still obtain the full extent of rewards if the project’s reputation was good.
Pei Qian could come up with a grading system for projects’ reputation: S-grade, A-grade, B-grade, and C-grade. According to the investment made into each project, Pei Qian would grade the project’s reputation. Each grade would earn those who worked on the project a different bonus.
The bonus percentage would vary for different types of projects.
For example, games normally earned profits over long periods. Thus, the period over which the bonus was to be distributed would be slightly longer as well. On the other hand, videos would be at their most popular in the first three months after uploading them. That meant the bonuses could be distributed at one
go.
This way, employees could focus on the reputation of their projects instead of profits.
Pei Qian would encourage everyone to engage in projects that did not make a profit but could become very popular. That way, Pei Qian would not earn profits, and the employees would receive huge bonuses. Wasn’t that perfect?
Of course, there would still be projects that could generate profit and be reputable.
However, these were the minority.
Under most circumstances, reputation conflicted with profit. It would be difficult for employees to achieve both.
Thus, Pei Qian decided to think more about the practicalities of this plan. He would come up with a set of rules and try to push this plan out before the game was published. Once he set the rules and gained the validation of all his employees, the effect would be deep and far-reaching. One could say that he would be reaping the benefits of this plan for a long time.
The thought of his employees becoming obsessed with the reputation of their projects and forgetting about generating profit made Pei Qian feel as if the entire company had just become extremely noble!
(1) This is a slang for ‘newbie’ or someone terrible at what they do.
Chapter 231 - The Legendary Fake Reviewers
Besides that, there was also Fei Huang Workspace’s new project.
After the ‘reputation-based reward’ stipulation was set-regardless if it was the games department of the short videos department in Fei Huang Workspace, there would definitely be adjustments to these departments’ direction.
However, in the near future, Fei Huang Workspace would still have many sponsored partnerships.
Hence, Pei Qian felt that he could consider ‘helping’ Fei Huang Workspace, to let them know the negative aspects of sponsored partnerships and let them see the crowd response. That way, he could justify the shift in business model from a for-profit to a reputation-based one.
As the saying went—if one did not experience storms, they wouldn’t be able to see a rainbow. It wasn’t that easy to successfully make flowers bloom in a greenhouse.
Cough, cough. Alright, Pei Qian actually just wanted them to do less sponsored partnerships. After all, only two months were left before the next settlement. To get the system’s special prize, Pei Qian couldn’t allow for anything to go wrong!
As for how he was going to act on this.
Pei Qian logged onto Aili Island quietly as he sent a private message to a UP Master called ‘Shaohu Reviews’.
After the last incident, Pei Qian more or less guessed that the people behind Shaohu Reviews were formidable. Whether it was sponsored partnerships or shooting some product down, Shaohu Reviews had a knack for it.
Pei Qian didn’t believe that such a UP Master didn’t know any fake reviewers. He had taken particular note of this UP Master previously precisely for an occasion like this.
Pei Qian had sent the message using Hardcore Reviews’ Aili Island account. He had also created an alternate chatbot account. He had to make sure that no one knew he was orchestrating this thing behind the scenes.
In a short while, Shaohu Reviews replied to the private message as the two got in contact.
On the other hand, Hu Xiao had not expected that Hardcore Reviews’ UP Master would actually look for him.
Although Hu Xiao had been conned real bad by Hardcore Reviews the previous time, he knew that that had probably been a coincidence; Hardcore Reviews releasing the third video was not targeted at him.
Hence, Hu Xiao did not nurse a grudge and wanted to make a new friend. He added Pei Qian’s alternate account.
As the saying went, two of a trade could never agree. Hu Xiao and the other professional product reviewers weren’t on the best terms. They would separately get sponsored partnerships to promote products and occasionally might even go up against each other.
However, from Hu Xiao’s perspective, Hardcore Reviews was after all a new UP Master. Although its fans had been increasing rather swiftly recently, it was still a small fry all in all.
Furthermore, Hardcore Reviews’ modus operandi didn’t pose a threat to Shaohu Reviews at all; it could in fact be complementary.
From Hardcore Reviews’ videos, its UP Master didn’t seem to be into sponsored partnerships. In fact, the UP Master didn’t seem to be lacking money. Every review it did, it would smash a cell phone worth four to five thousand; would ordinary review platforms do this?
In any case, Hardcore Reviews could not be belittled or ignored.
Besides this, Hu Xiao also couldn’t rule out that Hardcore Reviews had contacted him to buy fake reviews.
He had on hand the contact details of a huge group of fake reviewers while he often helped other UP Masters on Aili Island to contact these reviewers. This wasn’t a big secret in the industry and perhaps Hardcore Reviews’ UP Master had been introduced to Hu Xiao by someone else?
Soon, the friend request was accepted.
Pei Qian thought for a moment and asked, “I want to go up against a competitor; could you help?”
Hu Xiao didn’t say much as he sent over a price list.
Pei Qian speedily glanced through it.
Wow, what a dazzling array of categories!
Beginner-class fans: 10 yuan for 1000, 40 yuan for 5000, 70 yuan for 10000, fans that would remain and wouldn’t be lost.
Advanced-class fans: 12 yuan for 1000… a limited number has head portraits and basic information.
Top-class actual fans: 10 yuan for 400… permanent and active real fans.
Premium-grade active fans: 10 yuan for 300… each would bring tens of fans, no screening.
Resharing, commenting, liking:
Rapid sharing 2 yuan for 100 reshares.
Premium reshares at 13 yuan for 100… 100 yuan for 1000.
Mass reviewing, premium reviewing, mass liking, premium liking, etc.
All in all, there were different categories and all could be scaled up according to needs.
Besides these, there were package deals. For example, buying fans as a package would ensure that there would be a mix of different types of fans. This way, the increase in fans would appear more realistic.
These were prices for Weibo; there was a separate one for Aili Island as well.
This included clicks, bullet screen comments, reviews, increasing fan numbers, etc. All were labeled clearly.
However, Aili Island’s prices were evidently higher than Weibo’s. Perhaps Aili Island’s account screening process was more stringent or this relatively new site’s fake reviews market hadn’t matured yet.
Looking at the prices listed, Pei Qian then realized that buying fake reviews seemed to be much cheaper than he had thought.
From the looks of it, he could spend a few hundred or a thousand to curate a package deal that would generate hundreds of reviews. He could also add an option for people to like these specific reviews.
Of course, Pei Qian wasn’t intending to purchase fake reviews for anything sinister like defaming other products or humiliating and launching ad hominem attacks to create chaos and mislea
d consumers.
He didn’t plan to do any of these things.
“I want to buy some reviews and likes in a package.”
Pei Qian did not act all haughty and flaunt his wealth like before. The system didn’t allow it.
Without a justifiable reason, Pei Qian could not use his company’s money to pay Hu Xiao; he had to use his own.
Fortunately, Pei Qian wasn’t that poor now. Spending a thousand to buy some reviews and likes wasn’t beyond his means.
If this thousand spent could result in Fei Huang Workspace working on less sponsored partnerships and reduce revenue inflows by a million or two, that would be very worth it!
Naturally, Pei Qian also knew that the odds of this plan succeeding weren’t very high. However, using a thousand to test this out wouldn’t hurt.
Hu Xiao took another look; it was indeed business!
“No worries. Our fake reviewers are trained and are of a certain caliber; we will definitely achieve this task! Are you intending to boost reviews of your own account?”
Pei Qian, “No, I would like to boost reviews of another account. Please search for Fei Huang Workspace’s account. They will be releasing a product review video soon. At that time, please write a few lines of reviews on that video. The contents would be this: ‘I have used this before; this product is very handy, and I strongly recommend it.’”
Hu Xiao sent over a ‘subway train, old man, and cell phone’ emoji.
He then sent an ‘asking a question’ emoji.
What did this mean?
It was his first time seeing someone buy fake reviews like this!
If the reviews’ content were all the same, wouldn’t this insinuate that this account had hired fake reviewers? Only an idiot wouldn’t be able to tell.
However, Hu Xiao was clever and immediately understood.
Oh! Reverse buying of fake reviewers to hit at one’s competitor!
It seems like this Hardcore Reviews is not a small fry; there is a master at work!
As the internet environment changed, the standard of fake review services was also being raised.
Before, netizens could be easily fooled; now, it wasn’t the case. Everyone knew about fake reviews, and so the usage of fake reviewers required a blend between the fake and the real; they had to be believable.
Of course, this was in the case of boosting reviews for one’s own products.
Besides that, fake reviewers could also be used via a more sophisticated method: reverse fake reviews!
To boost reviews of a competitor and have the reviews being of poor quality and standard. This way, netizens would think that the competitor itself had used sub-par fake reviewers to boost its own product.
Not bad!
Furthermore, Hu Xiao looked at the intended content and grasped a new piece of information.
Fei Huang Workspace was also going to do product reviews?
He knew of Fei Huang Workspace. After all, when Boss Pei’s Daily Life had first been shown on Aili Island, it had been on the home page for a long while.
However, after a time, Fei Huang Workspace had not continued with Boss Pei’s Daily Life but had done a documentary. Recently, it had not produced anything new.
Was it preparing to make a comeback?
Furthermore, was it planning to do product review programs?
Hu Xiao was a little worried.
Fei Huang Workspace was evidently a formidable rival that didn’t seem to lack funds. If they started to do product reviews as well, they would most likely be stealing Shaohu Reviews’ rice bowl.
Although he didn’t know where Hardcore Reviews’ UP Master had gotten this news, from the looks of it, this information was credible.
That someone else was willing to hire fake reviewers to hit at his own competitor, Hu Xiao was more than willing to accept such an offer!
Hu Xiao even wanted to put his own money in to hire more fake reviewers.
However, after thinking about it further, he felt that there wasn’t such a need. After all, Fei Huang Workspace’s product review show had not even surfaced; it was not yet a threat to his own business. There was no hurry.
When he was assigning tasks to the fake reviewers, he could use his own personal rapport with them to ask them to write a few more reviews; that would put some extra pressure on his rival already.
“No problem!”
Hu Xiao accepted this request readily.
Chapter 232 - A Day in a Great Inventor’s Life
Before long, Hu Xiao had made all the necessary arrangements.
Once Fei Huang Workspace uploaded a new video, fake reviewers would immediately go and flood the comments section with reviews and likes.
If it was a new UP Master, such acts would be more obvious; after all, a new UP Master wouldn’t have that many fans yet.
Fei Huang Workspace already had a huge following, and fake reviewers’ comments might not be that evident.
However, that didn’t matter. As long as immediately after the new video was launched, the fake reviewers as a horde posted tens of reviews stating ‘I have used this before; this product is very handy and I strongly recommend it!’, others would definitely be able to tell what was up.
As Hu Xiao wanted to keep an eye on this matter, he followed Fei Huang Workspace’s page. Every once in a while, he would refresh the page to see if there were any updates.
Finally, on the second day, Fei Huang Workspace really released a video!
“Not bad! This Hardcore Reviews’ information is rather reliable. They actually know Fei Huang Workspace’s movements so clearly; this information-gathering is rather formidable.”
Hu Xiao increasingly felt that the UP Master behind Hardcore Reviews was someone not to be belittled.
He took a closer look and realized the name of the video was A Day in a Great Inventor’s Life. The caption of the video also had a keyword ‘review’ in it.
“It is indeed a product review video!”
After making sure that it was a product review video, Hu Xiao immediately posted a message in one of his group chats to direct his fake reviewers to take action! The content of all the reviews was uniform. Everyone was copying and pasting ‘I have used this before; this product is very handy and I strongly recommend!’.
Such messages were posted continuously.
As Fei Huang Workspace had many fans already, some other comments by normal fans were also in the mix. For example:
“Is this a miracle?”
“Is this a comeback?”
“When is the next season of Boss Pei’s Daily Life going to be released?!”
“So fast!”
These types of comments were made as well.
However, fake reviewers’ comments still formed the majority. Furthermore, these fake reviewers would also repeatedly ‘like’ other fake reviewers’ comments. As such, the top comments all became those by fake reviewers!
Hu Xiao saw the effect of his fake reviews army and couldn’t help but feel proud.
So what if they had many fans? These fans were still swallowed up by my fake reviews army!
This barrage of comments actually had a significant effect.
Such product review videos actually couldn’t earn much money just by relying on Aili Island’s incentive plans. They primarily relied on their sugar daddies: the so-called sponsored partnerships.
However, if a video had many fake reviewers commenting on it and they all appeared at once, that would have an impact on sponsored partnerships.
From the ordinary fans’ point of view if the product reviews they paid attention to used fake reviewers, that would definitely affect the objectivity of the reviews. Some fans might actually abandon this platform.
For sugar daddies and sponsors, they were mindful of these fake reviewers hired by the product review platforms, which would lead to a falsification of these platforms’ human traffic statistics. If they entered into sponsored partnerships with these platforms, would there be a backf
ire effect and ruin their own products’ reputation?
All these doubts would create a negative impact.
Of course, just a few fake reviewers would not strike a decisive blow on Fei Huang Workspace. However, this would become a rather vexing and messy issue for them.
Hu Xiao patiently waited for a while and then decided to go and see everyone’s responses on the video.
According to Hu Xiao’s estimates, only two possible scenarios could happen.
The first would be that the fake reviewers’ comments were so prominent that all viewers would jump on the bandwagon and pollute the comments section.
This was what Hu Xiao wanted to see.
The second would be Fei Huang Workspace immediately discovering the fake reviewers and starting to mass delete their posts.
However, regardless of how much they deleted, people would definitely still notice these fake reviews. Furthermore, the fake reviewers were posting very swiftly, and perhaps then accusations could be made against Fei Huang for deliberately deleting posts and comments.
Two hours later…
“It’s about time! Let’s see what the results are!”
Hu Xiao took a look at A Day in a Great Inventor’s Life’s comments section. After looking through, he was utterly befuddled.
What was going on?
Why isn’t there scolding and cursing?
Even more people are posting ‘I used this before; this product is very handy and I strongly recommend!’?
Hu Xiao was flummoxed.
Were the fake reviewers still posting?
That didn’t make sense. Fake reviewers were paid to do so and would only post as per instructed and paid; why would they be so passionate about this?
What was going on?
As Hu Xiao was still confused and couldn’t make sense of this, he clicked on the product review to watch and find out the reason behind this.
On the screen was a sluggish-looking youngster…
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