Chapter 444 - 426: Going Home Together

Chapter 444: Chapter 426: Going Home Together

After more than four hours, the New Year’s Eve gala—a melting pot of traditional Chinese aesthetic, anime, games, movies, music, and classic IPs—finally came to a perfect end.

D Station’s Dimension Festival went viral overnight. The live broadcast’s peak viewership surpassed 50 million, completely overwhelming the traditional television networks’ New Year’s Eve galas in both traffic and buzz. Major forums and chat groups were all discussing the festival’s performances. This stunning visual feast had countless young users flooding social media with praise.

All things considered, the response to D Station’s New Year’s Eve gala was unprecedented. Its innovation and content shattered the mold of traditional galas, breathing new life into traditional culture.

As a CCTV reporter asked D Station’s Chief Operating Officer, Zhou Lu, during an interview, "Why did D Station choose to create such an unconventional New Year’s Eve gala? This type of content and format, which has rarely, if ever, been seen at a New Year’s event, became the key factor in it reaching a mainstream audience."

Zhou Lu said, "For a brand, market traffic is certainly important, but what’s more important is retaining your core users. D Station genuinely respects its users. We considered their preferences and perspectives to tailor-make a New Year’s Eve gala exclusively for them."

"Every performance was one our fans would recognize. When they saw their favorite works on stage, they were genuinely happy. This creates a powerful sense of validation. All D Station did was amplify that feeling, expanding it so that all the fans could celebrate together, which in turn created an emotional resonance."

Zhou Lu smiled and looked at the reporter as she continued, "Besides, in this day and age, conventional New-Year’s performances no longer feel fresh to people. Young people today are incredibly well-informed. They are the main force of future consumption and will dictate the spending habits of the next generation. I believe that if you can capture Gen Z, you’ve captured the future."

"To put it simply, D Station is a young platform. We have to create what our users genuinely love, innovate constantly, and avoid complacency. That’s the only way to make a truly great product."

Zhou Lu’s words encapsulated the core values of Dili Dili. The success of D Station’s Dimension Festival became a classic case study, its operations analyzed by countless other platforms.

After the New Year’s Eve gala, D Station truly broke into the mainstream. It was a hot topic everywhere, beloved and followed by countless young people, and its user base grew with each passing day.

Those who missed the live broadcast were driven by fervent word-of-mouth recommendations to D Station to watch the recording. Many even rewatched it a second or third time. In less than half a month, the view count broke the 100 million mark, an astonishing feat.

Just as Jiang Xia had predicted, once D Station successfully established its brand, its commercial potential was steadily unlocked. All sorts of big-name advertisements began to pour in, and many talented content creators attracted the attention of advertisers. It was a win-win-win situation for all parties.

As 2012 began and the Spring Festival approached, the winter final exams at Tsinghua University also came to a close.

Jiang Xia hadn’t spent much time on his studies this semester. He’d only crammed during the last week and barely managed to score a 70. It wasn’t a high score, but at least he passed.

However, given Jiang Xia’s current standing at the university, he would have had a hard time failing even if he wanted to, unless he simply didn’t show up for the exam.

With the Spring Festival just around the corner, Qitian Animation finally secured the screening permit for its *Cat and Mouse* Year of the Dragon movie. The film officially entered its marketing phase and was scheduled for a nationwide release on the first day of the Lunar New Year.

With last year’s 1.78 billion box office record—which still held the title of the highest-grossing domestic film—and the recent, unprecedented buzz from the Dimension Festival, the moment the Year of the Dragon movie’s release date was announced, it became the most anticipated film of the Spring Festival season.

A joke made the rounds online: the only thing that could beat a Qitian Animation film was another Qitian Animation film.

Perhaps it wasn’t a joke after all.

"Godmother, how are the negotiations with the major theaters for the Spring Festival screening allocations going?" Jiang Xia asked casually, glancing at the report in his hand.

At the mention of this, a smile spread across Li Weiya’s face. "They agreed without hesitation. We’re guaranteed 40% of all showtimes on the first day of the Lunar New Year. If the movie’s box office performance is exceptional, they’ll increase it proportionally."

Hearing this, Jiang Xia chuckled. "Businessmen are driven by profit. When there’s money to be made, only a fool would refuse. Given the IP value of *Cat and Mouse* right now, its baseline box office performance is bound to be high."

"That’s true," Li Weiya said, nodding in agreement.

"In that case, let’s start the advance screenings a week early. They need to be on a larger scale than last year, with more showtimes. Hmm... Godmother, you should be the one to negotiate this with them," Jiang Xia said.

"No problem."

Li Weiya had been thinking about the same thing. Last year’s movie had benefited immensely from the explosive word-of-mouth generated by its advance screenings. Excellent reviews were popping up everywhere before the film even had its official premiere.

Combined with the massive, ongoing promotional campaign, it had claimed the top spot at the box office on its opening day by an absolute landslide.

And that was with only three days of advance screenings. A full week would build anticipation to a fever pitch. With the gold-standard reputation of *Cat and Mouse*, the advance screenings were guaranteed to be a success.