Chapter 305 - 304: Exposing the Live-streaming Platform’s Unspoken Rules

Chapter 305: Chapter 304: Exposing the Live-streaming Platform’s Unspoken Rules

This whole business of traffic throttling.

Lin Xiaoman, naturally, received the same treatment.

When Lin Xiaoman saw her backend data had been cut in half, she couldn’t help but let out a cold laugh.

"How arrogant. Thinking about it now, the relevant contract clauses are completely tyrannical!"

Lin Xiaoman snorted, then sent a screenshot of her throttled traffic to the group chat.

The streamers in the group had all, more or less, had their traffic restricted.

In an instant.

Everyone’s emotions flared up again.

"This company is so inhumane!"

"No wonder the veteran streamers gave in. A tactic like this is basically cutting off someone’s entire income!"

"It’s despicable. My agent even came to me before, trying to persuade me with all sorts of sweet talk."

"This is a classic case of carrot and stick!"

Lin Xiaoman saw how worked up everyone was.

She went ahead and changed the group announcement:

"Attention everyone. Tomorrow at 3 PM, as originally agreed, we will all go to the company headquarters to demand an explanation."

"At the same time, tomorrow at 8 AM, all streamers must post the relevant exposé videos on their accounts."

"Those streamers who can’t make it to the headquarters can go live to generate more buzz for this incident."

After posting the announcement, Lin Xiaoman quietly sent a message to the group:

"My family is pretty well-off. Tomorrow, I’ll buy us a trending topic. We’ll blow this whole thing up together!"

When everyone saw that Lin Xiaoman had just said she was going to buy a trending topic, they were all stunned.

They never thought there was a rich kid in the group.

Buying a trending topic was no simple matter.

Besides money, you also needed connections.

Furthermore, the position you bought on the trending list was also a delicate art.

If the position was too low, it would quickly get pushed down.

If the position was too high, it would be obvious at a glance that it had been bought.

And those prime spots were sold by the minute.

Everyone’s impression of Lin Xiaoman changed instantly.

The label of "rich kid" was firmly attached to her.

This was a truly pleasant surprise.

Who knew there was a real rich kid just streaming for fun on the platform.

And here she was, fighting for their rights alongside a motley crew like them!

Suddenly, their opinion of Lin Xiaoman shot straight to the top.

They immediately labeled her as "righteous."

Lin Xiaoman, however, hadn’t thought that far ahead.

As for buying the trending topic, that was something Lin Feng had instructed her about.

He was also the one who would handle the logistics.

Lin Xiaoman had only revealed this information in passing.

It was meant to be a way to reassure everyone who was discussing the plan.

She didn’t expect everyone to have such a strong reaction.

They even started liking her more!

Vice President Li, for his part, hadn’t made too many preparations either.

He simply called a few media outlets known for their daring reporting.

Moreover, Vice President Li was very clear on some of the rules of the capitalist market.

There was only so much profit to be made in the livestreaming market.

The largest share of the profits was, of course, monopolized by the major livestreaming platforms...

But the remaining resources were enough for the platforms in the secondary market to tear each other apart over.

And it wasn’t as if the Douhu Platform was invincible among these secondary platforms.

It naturally had competitors.

Vice President Li went straight to Douhu Platform’s rivals and leaked the news that a scandal was about to break.

As for what came next, Vice President Li didn’t need to get too involved.

The competitors who wanted to bring down the Douhu Platform would naturally take care of the rest.

Lin Xiaoman was currently in Xiang City.

So naturally, she couldn’t rush over to the Douhu Platform’s corporate headquarters.

Therefore, Lin Xiaoman chose to offer her support online.

She also took charge of coordinating the entire event.

Ever since that candid side-profile picture of her went viral, she hadn’t streamed live yet.

This time, the moment she started her stream, she was stunned by the number of viewers in her room.

Even though Lin Xiaoman already had two million followers,

in reality, getting a hundred thousand viewers for any given stream was already considered very good.

After all, not every follower has time to watch streams every day.

But today, the moment Lin Xiaoman went live, she saw the viewer count skyrocket from ten thousand to three hundred fifty thousand.

The number had more than tripled.

Only then did Lin Xiaoman remember that she had gone viral online a while back.

Because of the issue with the platform’s commission cut, Lin Xiaoman hadn’t been paying attention to this.

It wasn’t until she saw the soaring viewer count that she remembered her recent breakout fame.

After nearly three months of streaming,

Lin Xiaoman had already amassed a group of die-hard fans.

These fans were mostly drawn in by Lin Xiaoman’s personality and skill.

The new followers, for the most part, wanted to see the "divine beauty" that was so popular online.

They wanted to see if she was really that good-looking in her stream.

Moreover, some of them were there mainly to see if this so-called "divine beauty" was just the result of a beauty filter.

But as soon as they entered the stream, they saw Lin Xiaoman with a completely bare face.

Because today was mainly about exposing the platform’s unspoken rules,

she hadn’t planned any makeup or fashion segments.

So Lin Xiaoman simply didn’t wear any makeup.

Besides, to better present her makeup tutorials, Lin Xiaoman’s stream never used beauty filters anyway.

This completely stunned the new followers who had just joined.

"This streamer’s face is gorgeous... Which beauty filter is she using?"

"I can’t believe the picture circulating online actually wasn’t edited."

"The person above must be new here. This streamer never uses beauty filters."

"Not only does she not use filters, but if you watch her regularly, you’ll see she often appears on stream without any makeup."

Lin Xiaoman hadn’t even said a word, and the bullet comments in her stream were already buzzing with discussion.

"But the streamer’s schedule has been a bit chaotic the last couple of days..."

"She used to stream on Fridays and weekends!"

"Today is Wednesday, and we didn’t see her stream this past weekend either."

"Can’t a person have things to deal with at home these days?"

"But speaking of which, two other fashion streamers I follow didn’t post any updates this Saturday or Sunday either."

Lin Xiaoman’s sharp eyes caught the discussion in the comments about her not streaming on her regular schedule.

This gave Lin Xiaoman the opening she needed.

Seizing the opportunity presented by the bullet comments, she began to explain:

"Actually, this past Saturday and Sunday, something did come up that kept me from streaming on schedule."

"And today’s stream won’t have any fashion sharing. Instead, I have something very serious to discuss."

Lin Xiaoman’s expression was grave.

Without realizing it, she had captured the attention of most of the people in the stream.

These fans and viewers were extremely curious about what Lin Xiaoman had to say that required such a serious tone.

"Today, my stream is about exposing some of the platform’s unspoken rules."

Lin Xiaoman’s words hit the viewers like a thunderclap, leaving them completely stunned.

What?

Unspoken rules?

Upon hearing those two words, the audience’s curiosity was instantly piqued.