Chapter 36: A Powerful Turnaround

With Chen Fan’s promise of five cents per post and no cap on earnings, the army of hired posters finally let loose. Their comments were diverse in style, but the message remained singular: DomainNet was vastly superior, while YiYuNet’s features were utter trash.

Whenever someone tried to defend YiYuNet in the forums, they were instantly buried under dozens of layers of comments from the posters, leaving them so intimidated they dared not show their faces again. The administrators at YiYuNet clearly noticed the issue, but in this era, the concept of a "paid poster army" was not yet clearly understood, and they failed to act in time. By the time they realized what was happening, it was too late; the entire forum had been flooded.

The YiYuNet admins began a frantic campaign of deleting posts, banning users, and throwing people into "time-out." It was a drop in the ocean. Every time they deleted a post, the posters would berate them for running a dictatorship that could not handle criticism and only accepted praise. When they banned users, the posters would mock them for being sore losers, claiming they were being silenced simply for stating the truth—that the site was inferior to DomainNet.

These efforts proved futile and only served to tarnish YiYuNet’s reputation further. The chaos continued until after nine o'clock in the evening, when a desperate YiYuNet finally disabled the posting function on their forums, citing "network maintenance."

With no way to post, the hired army could no longer earn their keep. They intuitively began to spread to other corners of the internet. When they discovered YiYuNet’s advertisements on the three major portals, they swarmed the comment sections. Even more infuriatingly, they didn't just hurl insults; they systematically listed every flaw of YiYuNet. It was impossible to refute them because everything they said was true. Others took the opportunity to promote DomainNet: "Everyone should go check out DomainNet; once you do, you’ll understand the difference." "I don't know where YiYuNet gets the nerve to compete with DomainNet." "They have enough money to spend on marketing, but can't be bothered to fix their trashy forum features." "DomainNet is better; they don't even advertise, they spend all their money on improving site functionality." "Good wine needs no bush, keep it going, everyone..."

As it turned out, these netizens were natural-born marketers, and their arguments were quite compelling. At the very least, countless passersby who had previously known nothing about the situation now remembered the name "DomainNet."

Within a few days, all of YiYuNet’s advertisements on the three major portals had been compromised. The comment sections were entirely dominated by discussions about DomainNet. Their expensive ads had effectively become free promotion for their rival. Driven by the lure of easy money, the posters didn't just haunt the major portals; they roamed every forum and webpage they could find. Wherever there were people, there were their comments. In a short time, almost everyone on the internet knew the name "DomainNet."

In less than half a month, traffic to DomainNet exploded. Countless users flocked to the site, and the number of registered users climbed steadily. Chen Fan spent these days maintaining the backend, watching the numbers soar—a feeling that could only be described as painful yet exhilarating.

By this stage, YiYuNet couldn't be so foolish as to miss who was pulling the strings. They tried to copy the strategy, organizing their own members to smear DomainNet. However, due to their smaller numbers, they were completely crushed by the army led by Guo Shuai. This was the third time in half a month that YiYuNet had been forced to shut down its forums due to spam. The abysmal user experience caused even the original loyalists to curse and abandon the site, defecting to DomainNet.

In just two weeks, the traffic dynamic between the two sites had undergone a miraculous reversal. DomainNet’s metrics left YiYuNet far behind, and once users experienced DomainNet, they never looked back. The power dynamic had completely shifted. Chen Fan had staged a stunning comeback, leaving his competitor in the dust, and the total cost was less than half of what he had originally budgeted for marketing.

There are no secrets on the internet. To those in the know, this marketing turnaround was a masterpiece—a classic case study in business competition. A prominent business tycoon had previously analyzed both sites on a forum, concluding that while YiYuNet’s owner had deep pockets and DomainNet’s owner lacked the funds for promotion, DomainNet would eventually be left in the dust despite its better user experience. Reality, however, slapped him hard in the face. Through the ubiquity of user comments, DomainNet had staged a desperate comeback and surged far ahead. The two sites were no longer even in the same league.

In several prestigious business forums, future internet titans were engaged in heated discussions. Some declared the competition over, with YiYuNet beyond saving. Others analyzed the methods of the comeback, searching for lessons to learn. Some even asked who the owner of DomainNet was, clearly interested in making an acquaintance. One person even publicly offered ten thousand yuan just to have dinner with the owner, promising a twenty-thousand-yuan annual salary if they joined his company.

Just as the debate over the mastermind behind DomainNet reached its peak, a piece of news detonated in the internet startup circle: "Mysterious individual buys tudou.com for fifty thousand yuan, setting a new record for domain transaction prices."

Suddenly, both tudou.com and DomainNet were the talk of the town. "Just a web address, and it sold for fifty thousand?" "Since when are potatoes so valuable?" "Isn't a potato just a potato? They cost pennies at the market..." "It’s madness, I’ll never understand the world of the rich..."

At the time, everyone was merely shocked and baffled by the price. No one noticed the significance of the "tudou.com" domain. Only Chen Fan knew that in a few years, after several more transactions, this domain would officially launch in 2005 and become one of the world's first video websites.

Countless curious onlookers flocked to DomainNet to see the transaction notice, and capital firms began to quietly take notice of both DomainNet and YiYuNet. While DomainNet basked in the glory of skyrocketing traffic, YiYuNet’s situation grew increasingly dire. Traffic plummeted, and its reputation hit rock bottom. The contrast between the two was stark.

Chen Fan had thought he could finally breathe a sigh of relief, but before he could catch his breath, his desperate rival decided to stop at nothing. They had hired hackers to attack his site. Staring at the now-inaccessible DomainNet, Chen Fan was silent for a long moment before nodding slowly.

"Fine, fine. That’s how we’re playing this, is it?"