Chapter 84: Surge in User Registrations
Chapter 84: Surge in User Registrations
Thursday's trading session opened strong, with the market index surging to a new high before retracing slightly, forming an upper shadow line. Despite the pullback, the market showed bullish momentum.
Zhongxin Securities experienced a sharp intraday rise of over 7%, only to dip in the afternoon, mirroring the broader market trend. Fang Hong executed a precise T+0 trade, selling at the peak and repurchasing at the close.
Meanwhile, Jinshan Development hit its fourth consecutive daily limit-up, while Innovation Real Estate followed closely with its third. By the end of the day, Fang Hong had secured a profit of 3.09 million yuan, bringing his total assets to 41.17 million yuan—a new personal record.
---
Friday: The Market's Steady Climb
On Friday, the market opened low but quickly rebounded, confirming that Thursday's pullback was merely a bullish consolidation rather than a reversal.
Fang Hong's three holdings remained strong:
Zhongxin Securities closed up +2.65%.
Jinshan Development reached its fifth consecutive limit-up.
Innovation Real Estate surged to its fourth consecutive board.
Unlike the previous day, Fang Hong refrained from any trades, opting to hold full positions into the weekend. His decision paid off, netting him another 2.11 million yuan in profit, pushing his total assets to 43.28 million yuan.
Jinshan Development's rally was fueled by speculation surrounding an impending asset restructuring, a highly bullish event in the A-share market. Meanwhile, Innovation Real Estate's surge was linked to rumors that Shanghai Disneyland would be built near its properties, drastically increasing their land value.
---
The Rise of K3478: A Market Sensation
Fang Hong's precise trading strategies, particularly his flawless execution on Zhongxin Securities and early positioning in Jinshan Development and Innovation Real Estate, had propelled his Weibo alias, K3478, into the spotlight.
His Weibo account had rapidly gained traction, accumulating over 300,000 followers in a matter of days. In the online trading community, he had earned the nickname "Weathering Salted Fish," and discussions about his trades were flooding stock forums and social media groups.
Notably, his newfound influence had an unexpected side effect—Quantum Beat's Weibo registration numbers skyrocketed. Many retail investors, eager to follow his insights, created new accounts just to track K3478, leading to a surge in platform activity.
Fang Hong's Fame Points had soared to 13.97 million, while his Achievement Points reached 937,200, edging closer to the coveted million mark.
---
Meeting at Quantum Beat Headquarters
Later that afternoon, Fang Hong arrived at Quantum Beat's headquarters for a strategy meeting. The room was filled with the company's top brass, including CEO Xu Jingren, co-founder Lou Gaoyuan, and two newly recruited senior engineers.
As Fang Hong took his seat, Xu Jingren greeted him with a grin.
"Boss, I have some unexpected news for you."
The two engineers glanced at each other, momentarily stunned. This was their first time hearing Xu Jingren—the CEO—refer to Fang Hong as "boss." Realizing they had been in the dark about the company's true ownership structure, their attitudes toward Fang Hong immediately shifted.
Xu Jingren continued, "A major stock market influencer recently joined Weibo, and our backend data shows that his IP is from Xincheng. His account, K3478, has been driving massive traffic to our platform."
Hearing this, Fang Hong smirked internally but kept quiet. Revealing that he was K3478 would complicate matters, especially with the platform preparing for fundraising. If they knew their own boss had 40+ million yuan in assets, it might disrupt investment negotiations.
Lou Gaoyuan chimed in excitedly, "Boss, do you know how many new users this stock guru brought us?"
Before Fang Hong could respond, Lou continued, "370,000 registered users in a single week! That's more than we gained in the entire past month. And their activity rate is insanely high."
Another executive, Wang Ping, nodded. "Much higher than the students who signed up just for the free incentives."
Fang Hong asked, "What's our current total user count?"
Xu Jingren replied, "Around 700,000. We originally had 320,000, but K3478's influence has more than doubled our user base. Even better, 70% of his referrals are daily active users—they log in every day to check his posts."
Since Fang Hong had been posting market insights daily, his growing following had become a loyal, high-engagement audience—a rare feat for any social platform.
---
Scaling Up: A Bold Expansion Plan
The meeting then shifted focus to expansion efforts.
Xu Jingren reported, "We're currently promoting Weibo at 39 universities, with plans to reach 100 by year-end."
Fang Hong shook his head. "Too slow. We need to hit 300 universities by year-end. Speed up the expansion."
Xu Jingren hesitated. "That's possible, but the budget—"
Fang Hong cut him off, "Leave the budget to me. I'll secure Pre-A financing before the year ends. Investor negotiations are already in progress."
Reassured, the team agreed to accelerate their efforts.
The two engineers, who had remained silent, exchanged glances. They now fully understood Fang Hong's authority within the company.
---
Technology & Strategic Partnerships
One of the engineers, adjusting his glasses, spoke up.
"Version 1.376 is ready for internal testing tomorrow. The key update enables third-party integrations via API. Our next major version will launch an open API platform."
Fang Hong nodded and turned to Xu Jingren.
"Once the new version is live, our funding will be secured. We should then partner with Baidu to integrate a 'Share to Quantum Weibo' button on Baidu Encyclopedia's article submission page."
The room fell silent.
Baidu was a tech giant, part of China's BAT trio alongside Alibaba and Tencent. Partnering with them would be a massive credibility boost for Quantum Beat.
Xu Jingren processed the idea and nodded. "It's feasible. We're not competitors; Baidu is a search engine, and we're a microblogging platform. If we pitch it right, they should agree."
---
Boosting User Engagement: A Viral Strategy
As the discussion moved to user engagement, Wang Ping raised a concern.
"K3478's followers are highly active, but college students who joined for freebies rarely use the platform. We need a way to keep them engaged."
Yuan Jie, another executive, suddenly had an idea. "What if we organize a 'National Campus Beauty Contest' on Weibo?"
The room perked up.
"We let users vote for their university's most beautiful student. Then, at year-end, we host a national final—'Top Campus Beauty of the Year.'"
Wang Ping immediately approved. "Sex appeal never fails. College guys will flood the platform to vote."
Xu Jingren laughed. "This is literally Facebook's origin story."
Yuan Jie shrugged. "And? If it worked for Facebook, it'll work for us."
Everyone turned to Fang Hong.
Yuan Jie asked expectantly, "Boss, what do you think?"
---
---