After Liu Yutong left, the team's enthusiasm soared even higher. Everyone was fired up, determined to produce results as quickly as possible.
"Did you hear that? The eldest miss set the tone herself!"
"An initial promotion budget of twenty million is no small sum. Brothers, give it your all and polish this nuclear bomb until it shines."
The technical director immediately said, "Engineer Zhang, we need to get the server expansion plan ready right away. Based on the scenario the boss just described, if this game really blows up, our current closed-beta setup won't be able to handle it!"
The operations manager also started listing a series of requirements on the whiteboard: "We need to pick up the promotion pace quickly. Step one, get all group employees to open a farm as soon as possible and add at least ten friends. We need our own people playing first to create an internal atmosphere and stress test the system. Step two, blast the ads out through Wanhui Youxuan's massive delivery rider network. I think the ads should be simple, just one headline: 'Did you steal vegetables today?'. Step three, Weibo registration rewards must be tied to farm gift packs; the tech team needs to get this done ASAP. Step four, I want ads on all major portal websites to snatch up new users at maximum speed..."
After listening, a young product manager excitedly raised his hand. "I think we can set up some special items, like a crazy little dog. After using it, friends can't steal your vegetables for a certain period, but to get it, you have to share the game to three different groups or invite a new user. Also, the harvesting effects could be cooler, making people feel prouder when they share it..."
The more they discussed, the more excited everyone became.
Not to mention, there wasn't much time left until the New Year. If they could produce quick results, they would have a very comfortable holiday. The boss's attitude had already made everything clear—the rewards would definitely be substantial.
...
A week later, Weibo Farm officially ended its closed beta and opened to the entire internet, accompanied by an overwhelming advertising campaign.
The over one hundred thousand delivery riders of Wanhui Youxuan became mobile billboards. Their delivery boxes, the backs of their uniforms, and even the windshields of their electric scooters were prominently printed with that charmingly naive farmer logo and a soul-striking slogan: [Did you steal vegetables today? @Weibo].
Coupled with ads on Wanhui Youxuan's homepage and other platforms, the unfamiliar yet slightly thrilling concept of "stealing vegetables" began to infiltrate the daily lives of urbanites.
In addition to this, the operations team's ads started appearing on the homepage banners and pop-ups of major portal websites, recommended spots on major download sites, and even with high-traffic webmasters.
The ad creative was simple and direct: a sneaky hand reaching toward a juicy radish on the screen, accompanied by tense yet comical sound effects, finally freezing on the Weibo Farm login interface with massive text offering benefits: [Register to get a deluxe gift pack and upgrade your farm faster than everyone else!].
Social media also grew lively. For instance, massive amounts of organic recommendations and suspected paid posts began appearing in various QQ groups, Tieba forums, and message boards.
[Help! I've been kidnapped by Weibo Farm; I set eight alarms a day!]
[Looking for friends to steal from each other! My friend list is empty and I'm about to cry!]
[Shocking! This little game actually got me talking to my ex-girlfriend whom I lost touch with years ago!]
After a few consecutive days of advertising, the first batch of users attracted by the ads registered for Weibo out of curiosity. They didn't sign up to read trending news, but headed straight for that fun-looking farm. After a simple tutorial, they got their first piece of land and a few seeds.
Plant, wait, harvest... the simplest loop of happiness began to take effect.
However, this single-player farming would quickly get boring, so the system would timely prompt: [Your friend list is empty. Go invite friends to play together! Stealing each other's vegetables doubles the fun!]
Or when they tried clicking the "Go Steal Vegetables" button and saw an empty friend list, that feeling of having nowhere to start strongly drove them to dig through their phone contacts and QQ friends, unable to resist sending invitations: "Come add me on Weibo, there's a super fun little game!"
The viral spread started just like that.
It went almost exactly as Liu Yutong had predicted; the act of stealing vegetables became the strongest relationship glue and topic generator.
In just a few days, Liu Yutong heard many classmates at the University of Finance and Economics chatting about farming.
"I have a class at one o'clock, help me keep an eye on my vegetables!"
"I don't have an 8 AM class tomorrow, so I can camp out in my dorm and steal vegetables, hahaha..."
"Damn it, don't even think about stealing mine. I'll skip class to guard my corn." "Holy crap, you stole my tomatoes. You're dead. When you fall asleep tonight, I'm stealing your potatoes."
"..."
Beyond the school campus, the atmosphere in the Wanlonghui Group's offices also changed. Since Weibo was a product under the group, employees wouldn't be criticized by management for playing it during their downtime, which led to a different kind of vibe.
"Sister Liu from the finance department actually planted waxberries, a rare crop! Everyone, keep a close eye on it!"
"Oh man, I got up to use the restroom in the middle of the night yesterday and conveniently stole my manager's vegetables. He was furious when he found out this morning."
"Hahaha..."
As for the core members of Wanlonghui, it was even more direct.
"Old Zhang, how dare you steal my rare peaches! I'm challenging you to a duel, let's go spar at the martial arts hall!"
"Hahaha, Liuzi, you've got guts. You actually dared to steal Lawyer Zhao's vegetables. You're done for, you'll have to copy the criminal law out by hand at least once as punishment."
"I was wrong, great lawyer, please let me off! At worst, I'll pay you back with a few rare seeds."
"..."
Similarly, external discussions about stealing vegetables grew increasingly heated. In just five days, the viral reaction exploded.
Zhang Dalong and other technical backbones kept their eyes glued to the data at the company.
On the first day of the promotional launch, thanks to organic promotion by internal employees and initial ad teasers, new users surpassed 50,000.
On the third day of the launch, new users soared to 150,000, and Zhang Dalong ordered the first round of server expansion.
On the fifth day of the launch, the weekend effect combined with word-of-mouth completely erupted. The topic of stealing vegetables was hotly debated in more offline settings and online communities, with the peak of daily new users hitting 300,000. Weibo Farm's concurrent online user count constantly hit new highs. The tech team began 24-hour rotating shifts, with takeout and Red Bull becoming their standard gear.
Moreover, various data showed that the user invitation rate remained stable at an astonishing 25% or higher, meaning that every new user was organically pulling in even more new users for the platform.
Half a month after the launch, the growth curve not only showed no signs of slowing down but continued to climb. The maximum daily new users broke through the 500,000 mark, and the total number of registered users snowballed rapidly toward 5 million.
Back-end data showed that the average daily login frequency per user reached a staggering 18 times, with an average session duration of over 40 minutes. The vast majority of this time was dedicated to the Farm. Setting alarms to steal crops or to prevent others from stealing them had become a new daily habit for millions of users.
The back-end servers were constantly hitting their limits during this time! Emergency capacity expansions! Hitting the limit again! Expanding again...
"This is crazy! Absolutely crazy! Hahaha..."
Looking at the nearly vertical growth curve on the screen, Zhang Dalong could not hold back his laughter any longer.
Even when Big Goose first launched back in the day, it did not have such an absurd growth trend, did it? They had actually achieved the miracle of surpassing five million registered users just half a month after going online!
At this moment, Zhang Dalong felt incredibly fortunate to have a boss who understood the social ecosystem so deeply. This grand gift was massive indeed.
This was no mere minigame!
It was simply a tireless perpetual motion machine for user growth!
The microblog's own information feed was also stimulated by the Farm's explosive popularity. Because massive numbers of users were frequently logging in to steal crops, they would inevitably catch glimpses of the status updates and shared news from the people they followed on their homepages. Amusing anecdotes, complaints, and other Farm-related topics also became trending content on the platform, further boosting the community's overall engagement.
Now that the foundation was laid, the next step was to invite celebrities to join the fray.
For a social media platform geared toward the general public, the celebrity effect was absolutely crucial.
