Apple sought to regain its advantage in video bloggers and reviews, so it began an unusually large expenditure, throwing 20 million US dollars at once.
As mentioned before, 80% of the market was held by Los Gatos and Netflix, two video websites. At the same time, because these two video websites only focused on high-quality content, almost all top video bloggers were also on these two sites. Otherwise, YouTube's traffic would not have been able to support creators like them who relied on advertising.
Of course, those who lived by their passion were not included.
To advertise through these video bloggers, one had to go through the advertising alliances of Los Gatos and Netflix; private contact with the video bloggers was not allowed.
Thus, we saw a rather interesting scene: Apple's initial massive investment of 20 million US dollars all flowed into Jiangnan Group's hands. Jiangnan Group then distributed 10 million of it to the video bloggers, making a net profit of 10 million US dollars.
Of course, Jiangnan Group had excellent credibility. When they received money, they delivered. After Apple paid, the effect was remarkable. The buzz surrounding Apple phones on the internet immediately surpassed that of Google phones.
A stream of tech review video bloggers began reviewing Apple phones, giving them high praise, and even directly stating that Apple phones were superior to their competitors' products in terms of smoothness and call quality.
You see, Jiangnan Group and its subsidiaries were quite professional. They didn't mention Google by name, only referring to "competitors." That's professionalism!
Meanwhile, other media outlets began to exert their influence. Soon, the narrative emerged that Apple phones had better quality and Google phones did not, and this claim became widespread.
Google was immediately anxious. They immediately contacted Los Gatos and Netflix, stating frankly, "We have money. We'll invest tens of millions more US dollars. Make all those video bloggers praise us and trash the Apple phones."
Los Gatos and Netflix replied, "No problem. You can pay us, but for specifics, you need to discuss with the video bloggers how to proceed. We are not responsible for the specific promotion; we are only responsible for collecting and distributing money."
The responsibility was passed to the video bloggers, who found themselves in a difficult position. They stated that they relied on audience favor and trust for their livelihood. How could they accept money from one party and then immediately start criticizing their products?
This would not only offend the advertisers but also lead their audiences to question the low quality of their advertisements and their lack of integrity, causing their personas to collapse.
For a video blogger, the collapse of their persona was a death sentence.
Google was also getting impatient, insisting that these video bloggers come up with something new, and they were willing to pay more, tens of millions of US dollars more.
Tens of millions more? That changed everything.
So, these paid video bloggers immediately began their ingenious maneuvers.
Firstly, they could not contradict themselves, so they could only promote by emphasizing unique selling points.
For example, they would enthusiastically state in their videos how great the full keyboard on the Google phone was, how fast typing was, and how effective it was. Since Apple phones didn't have a full keyboard, praising fast typing wouldn't be contradictory.
For a time, the online discourse shifted to praising the tactile feel of the full keyboard on the "Cp" phone, how mature it was, and how it was a universal typing artifact, successfully helping Google regain some ground and its share of public opinion.
Apple, naturally, was not to be outdone. They started paying bloggers to continue their promotion. The bloggers saw this and thought, "Well, let's find other features to promote." Thus, the full touch screen, a super screen full of technological flair, became the object of everyone's adulation.
For a while, the entire internet was filled with praise for the full keyboard and touch screen, and heated debates ensued. However, after spending tens of millions of dollars on promotion, it seemed they still couldn't defeat their opponent.
At this point, neither side could stop. Google took the initiative to expand the battlefield. Not only the tech review video bloggers but also bloggers in lifestyle, comedy, film, and other categories magically found themselves receiving business inquiries from Google phones. They then subtly incorporated promotions for Google phones in various ways.
This led to widespread jubilation online. Users could find mentions of Google phones in almost any video they opened. Google phones' exposure increased dramatically, instantly overshadowing Apple. Of course, at least Google spent tens of millions of US dollars on advertising.
Apple, naturally, could not be outdone. Once again, all the video bloggers received a generous package from Apple. Apple's request was very simple and unpretentious: they just wanted the bloggers to switch to Apple phones and, as if by chance, showcase some function or convenience of the Apple phone in their daily lives that traditional phones couldn't achieve.
For example, using the front camera of the Apple phone as a mirror.
In an instant, Apple dealt another blow to Google.
This online video battle between the two sides continued for several months. Google and Apple continuously innovated in their promotions, with various imaginative advertisement videos emerging one after another.
Their advertising efforts moved from online to offline, and the results were significant: users worldwide became aware of "Cp" and began to believe that "Cp" was a super evolutionary version of future phones, that the future belonged to "Cp," and they yearned to own a "Cp" phone.
Of course, the money spent was also substantial. The two companies collectively spent over 500 million US dollars on promotional efforts to build hype for their respective "Cp" devices. Most of this ended up in the hands of Jiangnan Group, and the video bloggers began to feel the warmth of spring.
However, after just a few months of war, both companies reluctantly realized that they still couldn't defeat their opponent. Instead, they were both sending advertising fees to Jiangnan Group, which was truly disheartening.
But soon, they discovered that the key to breaking the deadlock still lay with Jiangnan Group.
Both companies realized that, apart from the unique selling points of the full keyboard and full touch screen, their phones were quite homogenized. Even the front and rear camera pixels were the same – the highest available at the time from Jiangnan Group: 2 million pixels for the front and 8 million pixels for the rear.
They would have liked to have higher specifications, but Jiangnan Group could not produce them. That was the limit of their current industrial production capacity. You couldn't get anything higher even if you wanted.
Other aspects were largely the same. Both sides had pushed performance to its limits. Unless they intended to sell their phones for over $2,000 each, they couldn't invest further in specifications.
Yet, they had to add extra selling points to their phones that the other side lacked.
Both companies almost simultaneously thought of this way to break the stalemate but again encountered the same difficulties and problems.
While they had some new features under development, it seemed problematic to directly implement these new features in the short term!
Moreover, if new features were added in terms of hardware, it would mean a complete redesign of the entire model. Wouldn't that prevent a normal launch in August, and would all the previously manufactured units have to be redone?
This was absolutely impossible!
Therefore, any hardware change was out of the question. The only avenue they could pursue was software, to create some new innovations in software. However, developing something in software in a short period was also very difficult, and there didn't seem to be any software that could be effectively promoted.
So, after much thought, both companies slapped their thighs and realized that the fastest, most attractive software, and the most topic-generating, besides games, what else could it be?
Currently, the entire mobile game market was dominated by Jiangnan's "00 Game Mall." If they could invite the "Jiangnan Game Mall" software into their phones, wouldn't that completely crush their opponents?
However, both companies still felt hesitant. According to their original plan, they intended to develop the game mall themselves, like the "00 Mobile Game Center," to monopolize all mobile game sources from the origin and extract exorbitant commissions, making huge profits.
By actively introducing the "00 Mobile Game Center," wouldn't they be inviting a wolf into their own house?
"It's fine. The most important thing right now is to defeat the opponent. As long as the opponent is defeated, it will be easy to block the '00 Mobile Game Platform' in the future," both sides mused, and then almost simultaneously sent invitations to "00," inviting them to be integrated into their phones as official built-in applications.
It was at this moment that Leng Zhimeng, holding the news from both companies, found Mr. Huang, who was grinding iron, and asked how to respond to this invitation.
"What do you think we should do?" Mr. Huang asked his sister-in-law after looking at the report, a slight smile playing on his lips.
"I think we should agree to both. That way, the entire Cp gaming market will be ours in the future!" Leng Zhimeng said with a smile.
"That won't do!" Huang He shook his head and laughed. "They are both coming because they have something the other doesn't. If you give it to both, then neither will want it, and we'll end up at a disadvantage!"
"Then who should we give it to?" Leng Zhimeng asked curiously.
"It's simple, just auction it off!" Mr. Huang slapped his thigh. "We don't have any great relationship with Google or Apple anyway. You just hold an auction for exclusive cooperation rights. Whoever pays more, we'll cooperate with!" Mr. Huang said with a smile.
"But brother-in-law, once we truly cooperate with one party, that party will likely completely defeat its opponent. And once one party gains an advantage, they might retaliate against our '00 Mobile Game Platform'!" Leng Zhimeng said with reservation.
"Don't worry," Huang He shook his head, extremely confident. "Their hands can't reach us because their phones won't survive this year!"