Super Zoo

The speed of information dissemination in the internet age is astonishingly fast. When three Weibo accounts posted short messages at the same time, within a few hours, the followers of each account made the connection.

Therefore, the identity of the mysterious guest on Yangchuan Zoo's live streaming platform was ready to be revealed: 'Jiao Shou + Mr. Han'.

"What are these two good buddies doing at the zoo?"

"Could there be an affair?"

"The zoo director really has a wide network of friends, even bringing his father-in-law to support the event!"

Suming's chat group of various zoos also received this news.

The zoo officials in the group were mostly middle-aged, all over thirty years old, with a few approaching fifty. They had virtually no understanding of live streaming, this newfangled thing, and they weren't optimistic about the prospects of expanding live streaming through celebrity endorsements.

Utilizing the star effect can indeed make a splash and increase viewership in a short time, but there are two issues; without solving them, the live streaming platform cannot operate normally and healthily.

The first is still the old problem, the monetization model.

Having celebrities indeed helps with promotion, but it still doesn't solve the profitability issue. Even if a small number of fans are willing to pay to watch their idols live stream, having celebrities appear comes at a higher cost. Suming couldn't possibly always find celebrities willing to appear for free.

The second is about content. This is also an old problem. The reason live streaming of animals is not very popular is that it lacks content. Animals can't sing or perform, nor can they accidentally have a wardrobe malfunction. There's not much appeal; it's okay for a fresh experience watching for a few minutes, but it's tough to draw people to watch the live stream for a long time.

Previously, no one could have imagined that, although the plot was fragmented, there was still a storyline in place. What kind of story could there be with two celebrities live streaming? After all, they would merely be introducing the animals.

"Would people really be willing to sit in front of a computer, spend hours watching celebrities chat, and even be willing to pay for it?"

Suming did not immediately answer these questions in the group.

It wasn't that he was hoarding his wisdom, unwilling to share his experience, but rather due to the generational gap. Some knowledge simply can't be imparted through words alone. Only after these older colleagues see the results for themselves and reflect on them will they understand.

These two issues, fundamentally, are due to the old thinking of these older colleagues, who haven't caught up with the times and don't understand the mainstream internet audience of today.

Actually, Suming didn't quite understand it himself either.

Take the various live streaming platforms of today, for instance. What content do they have, really? It's nothing more than playing video games, sharing bits of everyday life, or simply streaming themselves eating and sleeping. Female streamers might sing, act cute, and occasionally show a bit of leg.

If the goal is purely for 'titillation', it would be better to go watch an adult film directly, or go to an overseas site like MFC for an uncensored live adult video feed.

Yet, paradoxically, these live streams, which the so-called veteran colleagues found uninteresting, manage to attract hundreds of thousands of viewers, including wealthy patrons who don't hesitate to spend lavishly.

Audiences have grown tired of watching celebrities perform while wearing masks on stage. They're more eager to see the authentic side of performers' lives. That's why not only online platforms are booming, but reality shows are also extremely popular. Of course, today's reality shows are also staged, but they stage life itself, and at least they appear authentic.

So, whether there's a plot or not, and regardless of its quality, doesn't really matter. Life is a drama that depends entirely on acting skills. The success of a live stream rests on the hosting ability of the presenter and the planning of the show.

The live broadcast was scheduled to start at noon sharp. Suming did not participate in the live stream but watched the first live broadcast in the conference room with several core employees of the zoo and Shen Yan.

According to the data provided by the technical staff, around 9 am, people began visiting the live streaming platform's server. However, at that time the stream hadn't started yet, and all they could see on the screen was a clueless Persian cat with its face filling the screen, and a countdown timer reading 'Time left until the live broadcast starts: N minutes N seconds.'

As the countdown progressed, the number of visitors began to rise.

After 11:50 am, the traffic reached a peak.

"We have about twenty-five thousand people currently," Shen Yan offered a relatively accurate figure just one minute before the live stream was set to begin.

Twenty-five thousand people didn't sound like many, especially compared to the combined forty million followers on the three Weibo accounts, which it didn't even amount to a thousandth of.

But this can't be viewed simply in terms of raw numbers.

First, among the three Weibo accounts, the one with the most followers belongs to Mr. Han, and a significant portion of his fanbase are not the type to watch live streams; these people are not the target consumer group for live streams. Second, not all followers check Weibo every day; many might only visit it after lengthy intervals, so not all fans were aware of today's live broadcast debut; in fact, it could be said that most didn't know. Third, not everyone has the time to watch live broadcasts on the web at this particular moment.

Another key point is that the live streaming platform is currently only available on PC, with no mobile app developed yet. Nowadays, aside from working, most young people hardly use computers, preferring to surf the internet on their smartphones or iPads, which excludes yet another large group of potential viewers.

Overall, without any deliberate extensive publicity, the first live broadcast managed to attract more than twenty thousand people, which is considered a fairly good result. If millions of people had rushed in all at once, the zoo's server would probably have crashed in an instant.

Mrs. Tong and several zoo employees were startled by this number!

"More than twenty thousand people! Goodness, over twenty thousand people came to see our zoo just in one morning!" Mrs. Tong was quite amazed.

The usual visitor traffic of the zoo was only a fraction of this number; if there were this many visitors every day, wouldn't the zoo soon become nationally famous?

She couldn't help but think how great it would be if all these people could buy tickets to watch. Yangchuan City Zoo would immediately become the most profitable zoo in the country!

Suming, however, was relatively calm. A portion of these more than twenty thousand people came for the celebrities, not the zoo itself. Without the star appeal, the numbers would greatly decline.

As for everyone buying a ticket to watch the live stream, Suming was certain that if they did that, it would be good if one-twentieth of the twenty thousand people stayed, so that wasn't realistic either.

The live broadcast time was set by a computer program; before it started, there was just the countdown timer and the big-faced Persian cat on the big screen. If you clicked on its face with the mouse, it would let out a meow.

Ten seconds, nine seconds... two seconds... one second...

Finally, the time arrived, and the screen flashed as the entrance to the live broadcast platform opened.

After clicking to enter, what appeared before everyone was a scene vastly different from that of the Shanghai Online Zoo.

The live broadcast room was divided into two parts. On the left was a collapsible list, split into two main categories: celebrity live broadcasts and animal live streams. When expanded, the list showed detailed entries, such as reptiles, amphibians, and flying creatures under animal live streams.

On the right side, most of the screen had small windows for each live broadcast, with the top row labeled 'Current Hottest Rooms,' automatically generated based on the number of people in each room; below that were 'Zoo Recommended Rooms,' which, as the name suggests, were chosen by the zoo's live platform editors, who recommended rooms they thought were particularly valuable or featured new animals.

The online platform was an innovation for zoos nationwide, a path of reform worth studying and exploring. Hence, not only Yangchuan Zoo organized internal viewing, but other zoos were doing the same, including Shanghai Zoo, which had pioneered the online zoo concept nationwide.

Everyone wanted to glean some successful experiences or lessons from Yangchuan Zoo's live broadcast this time.

Upon entering the livestream platform, it was a bit of a surprise to discover that the two guest stars, Jiao Shou and Mr. Han, were not in the same live room fooling around but in different rooms, each hosting their own stream.

Not just the two of them; the unexpected female lead Xiaomei also opened a room, taking on the role of a proper online hostess.

The fans rushed into their respective idols' rooms, and almost instantly, the 'Current Hottest Rooms' refreshed to show: Mr. Han's room, Jiao Shou's room, Xiaomei's room.

Following closely was 'Ancient Moon Xian Residence,' with just a few dozen fewer people than Xiaomei's room.

Viewers could only enter one room at a time, but Suming could see the situation in all rooms from the back end.

In Mr. Han's room, the large screen showed Mr. Han standing on the outer corridor of the fifth floor of Whisperwind Pavilion, the wind tousling his hair but not the bristles of his beard.

"Hello, everyone. I'm currently at one of the scenic spots in the zoo, the top floor of Whisperwind Pavilion. At the moment, this is also my temporary home..."

Before he could finish, a row of computer-generated Fortune Cats appeared on the room's screen, shaking their arms and wriggling their bottoms as they passed across the screen, followed by a banner that read, 'Morning 6:30 Cat gifts Mr. Han ten Fortune Cats!'

Accompanied by the 'meow meow meow' of cat sounds.

Then a small queue of mantis shrimps with urine spraying from their heads swam across the bottom of the screen, "White Mouse gifts Mr. Han ten 'Mantis Shrimps'..."

Following that, the line of gifts at the bottom of the screen was nearly continuous, with people gifting Fortune Cats, Mantis Shrimps, and occasionally a few 'Hip-hop Monkeys,' most being for Mr. Han, while the others were for 'animals.'

On the subtitles, there was a blank space in front of the word 'animals,' not indicating what animal it was, probably one that would make an appearance later.

The program had just started, and Mr. Han had only spoken a few words before receiving hundreds of small gifts, and the animal yet to appear had already received over thirty gifts.

"Hmm, what's this function?" In the livestreaming room of Shanghai Zoo, a leader watching the livestream pointed to a row of function buttons at the bottom of the screen and asked the technician beside him.

The row of function buttons had two large ones, labeled 'Gift to Host' and 'Gift to Animal,' with a row of smaller buttons reading 'Mantis Shrimp,' 'Fortune Cat,' 'Hip-hop Monkey,' 'Grey Wolf,' 'Unlucky Bear,' 'White-forehead Tiger,' 'Lion King,' 'Prehistoric Crocodile,' and 'The Magnificent Super Monster.'