Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

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 mislead 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.