You were supposed to have a fake marriage with the diva, so how did you become her father?

Chapter 181 TUTU's "Ask a Friend" Function

Lu Ran walked to the window and suddenly smiled.

"When Super Girl really becomes popular, when we discover those truly talented people, when they release albums, hold concerts, and become the new generation of idols... that's when the real show will begin."

After listening to Lu Ran's words, Zhou Mingzhe seemed to understand something: "You mean we're going to create stars?"

"Yes and no." Lu Ran turned around. "Our show isn't just about making money or grabbing attention. What we're trying to do is build a platform so that people who previously had no chance can be seen."

He paused, his eyes serious:

"I've seen too many talented people who, lacking background and resources, remain unknown their entire lives. The entertainment industry has been monopolized by capital for far too long. Someone has to break that monopoly. Let's be the first to do so."

Zhou Mingzhe remained silent for a long time after hearing Lu Ran's words.

Actually, he's just a programmer and doesn't care much about the entertainment industry, but now their TUTU is indeed getting popular quickly thanks to this variety show.

Zhou Mingzhe knew that this company would not be limited to this, and there would be many competitors in the future.

However, with Lu Ran by his side, Zhou Mingzhe suddenly felt that it wasn't so difficult after all.

After thinking for a moment, Zhou Mingzhe asked, "Lu Ran, have you ever considered what it might be like if one day you also become one of those monopolistic capitalists?"

Lu Ran was stunned for a moment.

Then he laughed.

"Then let me become capital first. Perhaps I'm someone willing to break the monopoly?"

Zhou Mingzhe also smiled.

"Alright, let's break the Breaker together."

...

When Lu Ran returned home that evening, Shen Yuege was looking at her phone on the sofa.

"You're back?" She didn't even look up. "Come see this."

Lu Ran leaned closer, and the screen showed the homepage of a TUTU account.

The ID is "The Cat Who Wants to Sing," and the number of followers has exceeded 100,000.

Clicking through, all you see are videos of her cover songs.

The latest post is "Sing If You Want," which has 300,000 likes and over 8,000 comments.

"Who is this?" Lu Ran asked.

"A contestant from the preliminary rounds." Shen Yuege looked up, her eyes sparkling. "From the Shanghai region, nineteen years old, a freshman at a music academy. Yesterday during the preliminary rounds, the judges gave her a unanimous vote. The staff filmed her and posted her video on TUTU, and she became an overnight sensation."

Lu Ran clicked on the cover video.

The girl's voice was clean and simple, without much technique, but you could hear the sincerity in it.

"Sing if you want to sing, sing it loud and clear, even if no one applauds for me..."

At the end of her song, she said to the camera:

"Thank you 'Super Girl', and thank you Shen Yuege for this song. I used to be afraid to sing because my family said I wasn't cut out for it. But now I know that I can sing if I want to, without needing anyone's permission."

The comments section was flooded with messages:

"Go, little sister!"

"That's the point of a talent show!"

"I cried...it felt so real..."

Lu Ran watched the video carefully and felt gratified.

This girl's singing skills are indeed not outstanding, but after passing the audition, there are actually mentors in "Super Girl". As long as a person loves to sing and has potential, they can show it on this stage.

This girl is a good example.

Shen Yuege leaned on his shoulder and asked softly, "What are you thinking about?"

"I'm thinking..." Lu Ran said, "Our variety show is very well done, it's worth it."

"Um?"

"This show isn't about making money or becoming famous." He turned to look at Shen Yuege, "It's about giving these 'cats who want to sing' a chance to be heard by everyone."

...

The auditions for "Super Girl" have entered their third week, with the number of applicants exceeding 1.5 million.

TUTU's daily active users have remained stable at around 12 million. Although the discussion in the martial arts community has been diverted a lot of attention by "Super Girl", it still maintains hundreds of thousands of active users every day.

Zhou Mingzhe has been incredibly busy lately, staring at three screens simultaneously: the backend data for TUTU on the left, the test version of "Happy Match" in the middle, and the code editor on the right.

Every time Lu Ran walked into the office, he felt that this technical partner was really worth it. Not only was he capable, but he was also willing to work hard, as if he could grow three heads and six arms.

"How did the match-3 test go?" Lu Ran asked.

Zhou Mingzhe peeked out from behind the screen and adjusted his glasses: "Internal testing is fine. All art assets have been imported, and the level design is based on the Excel spreadsheet you provided, with 300 levels—enough for players to play until next year."

What about user experience?

"We recruited a hundred seed users for internal testing, and the feedback was quite outrageous." Zhou Mingzhe pulled up a data report: "On average, the app opened 8.7 times a day, and the average game time was 12 minutes. Some people were still playing at 3 a.m., saying they couldn't sleep and needed to play two rounds before they could fall asleep."

Lu Ran laughed: "That means you're addicted."

"There's an even more interesting statistic," Zhou Mingzhe switched pages. "Among the beta testers, 37% immediately restarted after failing to complete the game, 23% shared their experiences on TUTU Moments asking for walkthroughs, and another 15%..."

He paused, his expression somewhat strange: "They sent us an email asking if we could recharge to buy items."

Lu Ran raised an eyebrow: "So soon someone's already thinking about spending money on in-game purchases?"

"Yes. One user said she's been stuck on level 50 for three days, just one step away, and she's willing to pay to buy more stamina."

Lu Ran was silent for three seconds, then smiled.

"Alright, then let's grant their request."

"Open for top-ups now?" Zhou Mingzhe was taken aback. "Isn't it too early?"

"No in-app purchases," Lu Ran shook his head. "But we can enable the 'Ask a Friend' feature. You can share it to TUTU Moments three times a day and ask your friends to help unlock items."

He paused, then smiled slyly:

"This is called social fission."

In his previous life, he was very familiar with this tactic; almost every software and game had this sharing function.

The friend who helped with this is the most familiar one, Pinduoduo.

In her previous life, Lu Ran was woken up every day by messages from other people. When she opened them, she would find that they were from her friends or colleagues who wanted to cut her price on Pinduoduo. This made Lu Ran so angry that she wanted to cut them every time.

Hearing Lu Ran's words, Zhou Mingzhe nodded thoughtfully. Although he didn't quite understand the mystery, Lu Ran was never wrong. He then continued to bury himself in writing code.

Lu Ran sat down at his desk and turned on his computer.

At the same time, a system panel popped up in my head:

Current popularity rating: 78,234,567

Eight million eight hundred and forty thousand.

Since the release of "Sing If You Want" and the start of the "Super Girl" auditions, her popularity has skyrocketed.

Now he can search freely.

After some thought, Lu Ran decided to temporarily abandon large-scale online games. The main reason was that TUTU's customer base wasn't that large, and if a phenomenal game were copied by competitors, it would be very detrimental to TUTU's development.

After thinking for a moment, Lu Ran typed into the search box:

[Complete Development Materials for Happy Farm]

—The search requires 5,000,000 popularity points. Confirm?

confirm.

The download window popped up the next second.

[Transferring data...]

This time the data volume is smaller than that of the match-3 game, but it still includes complete source code, art assets, design documents, and a "player psychological manipulation guide".

Lu Ran opened the guide, read two pages, and couldn't help but laugh.

"This system... really understands human nature."

...