Chapter 55: The Ugly-Cute Dinosaur Unexpectedly Goes Viral

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Lin Qianfan closed the proposal and stared thoughtfully at the computer screen.

Memories of his previous life surfaced in his mind. Back then, QQ had become a social app used by practically everyone.

But now, the chat tools on the market were still in their infancy, with limited features and a mediocre user experience.

In his previous life, the arrival of QQ had completely transformed the way people communicated. In this life, however, the market had yet to produce anything comparable.

“If I imitate the model QQ used in my previous life and seize the initiative...” Lin Qianfan’s thoughts gradually took shape.

“Our school’s official account has only just gotten started. The milk-tea shop and food-delivery platform helped drive a surge of traffic, but that traffic is too scattered.” Lin Qianfan pointed at the computer screen.

“If we could develop a new social app and gather all that scattered traffic in one place, the results would be much better.”

Yong Pan came over and glanced at the design sketches on the screen. “You mean creating a new kind of chat app?”

“A chat app?” Dawei sat up on his bed, his face full of confusion. “Don’t we already have chat tools? Why bother making another one?”

Lin Qianfan shook his head. “Those chat tools are hopelessly outdated. They have too few features and a poor user experience. They can’t satisfy people’s needs anymore.”

“So you want to create something more useful than the existing tools?” Yong Pan asked.

Lin Qianfan pointed at one of the sketches. “More or less, but it wouldn’t be limited to chatting.”

“Let’s call it MicroChat. The name is simple and easy to remember.”

“MicroChat?” Dawei scratched his head. “It sounds pretty impressive, but how are you planning to make it?”

“It needs the basic functions first: a friends list, chat windows, and group chats.” As he spoke, Lin Qianfan wrote down several keywords.

“Then we can add stickers, file transfers, voice calls, and other features.”

Yong Pan nodded. “That doesn’t sound too difficult. We can build those functions with existing technology. But what do you want to use it for? Just chatting?”

“Not entirely.” Lin Qianfan shook his head. “The official account’s videos lean toward entertainment, while MicroChat would focus more on social interaction. My idea is to combine the two and create a product that’s more closely connected to student life.”

“Of course, that’s not all.” Lin Qianfan smiled. “We want to turn it into a genuine social platform.”

“Users could create their own interest groups, such as basketball clubs or food lovers’ circles, and share content and discuss topics within them.”

Lin Qianfan continued, “We could also integrate the official account and launch a short-video feature.”

“Short videos?” Dawei’s interest was piqued. “What does that have to do with the official account?”

“It has a great deal to do with it.” Lin Qianfan explained, “A lot of people now like sharing their lives on social platforms, but the formats are limited and the content is restricted.”

“If we add short videos to MicroChat, users could film, edit, and publish them directly. Wouldn’t that be more convenient?”

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Yong Pan frowned. “But wouldn’t that make the video content too chaotic? And users might not necessarily use those features.”

“That’s why we need to guide them,” Lin Qianfan said. “The short-video feature can’t just be for filming. It also needs editing tools—special effects, filters, stickers, background music, transitions, and so on.”

He opened the computer and showed them a video he had edited himself.

The video featured animated stickers, dazzling transition effects, and lively background music.

“See? Effects like these can attract users while improving the quality of the content.”

“That’s pretty interesting.” Yong Pan nodded. “Though implementing all those features could take some time.”

“That’s fine. We can begin with the simplest functions, such as filming and publishing, then gradually add editing tools later.”

Lin Qianfan continued, “We can also test the short-video feature on the official account first and see how users respond.”

“How do we test it?” Yong Pan asked, puzzled.

“It’s simple.” Lin Qianfan opened the official account’s management panel.

“First, we release a new version with an entry point for filming and publishing short videos. Then we use several virtual accounts to post content and encourage users to participate.”

“Virtual accounts?”

Lin Qianfan opened a video he had prepared in advance.

On the screen, a dinosaur posed confidently in front of the camera, striking one pose after another to a lively, upbeat soundtrack.

“What is that?” Yong Pan asked, perplexed.

“I generated it with a program,” Lin Qianfan said. “It’s a virtual character. It isn’t exactly attractive—in fact, you could say it’s a little ugly.”

Dawei leaned closer to the screen. “It really isn’t good-looking. It even has, well... a slightly narcissistic air.”

“Exactly. Narcissistic.” Lin Qianfan nodded. He planned to use the account to post ten videos in succession, all with that same self-obsessed style.

“Then I’ll have you two leave comments beneath the videos.” Lin Qianfan smiled.

“That should get people arguing about whether the character is beautiful or ugly and drive up the buzz.”

“Will that really work?”

“Of course it will.” Lin Qianfan’s tone was certain. “With students these days, controversy means attention.”

“Once the buzz picks up, attractive girls will definitely follow the trend and post videos of their own. Some of them might even tag the dinosaur account.”

“Would anyone really do that?” Yong Pan asked, only half-convinced.

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“Just wait and see.”

Lin Qianfan immediately got to work, uploading the ten videos one after another to the official account’s short-video section.

A few minutes later, he had his roommates take out their phones and leave several comments beneath the videos.

“This is unbelievably ugly, and it’s actually that confident?”

“Ugly people really do love showing off. Hahaha!”

“Maybe she thinks she’s the campus belle.”

Sure enough, the comments quickly sparked discussion among other users.

“How bored are you people that you’d come here just to mock a virtual character?”

“She may be a dinosaur, but at least she’s confident. What’s wrong with that?”

“The person above is right. Confident people are the most beautiful!”

Before long, several attractive girls posted videos of their own and tagged the dinosaur account directly.

“After watching Miss Dinosaur’s video, I want to try filming a little bit of my daily life too. What do you all think?”

“Whether someone’s ugly or not doesn’t really matter. What matters is confidence, right, Sister Dinosaur?”

Lin Qianfan watched the data curves in the management panel, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. “See? The buzz is building.”

He opened another set of video materials. “This time, let’s switch things up. We’ll use a handsome-guy account and post some short videos featuring attractive men.”

“Handsome guys?” Dawei’s eyes lit up. “Isn’t that basically a gift for the girls?”

“Exactly.” Lin Qianfan nodded. “We want users to feel the variety of the content—some of it funny, some of it easy on the eyes.”

Soon, several handsome-guy videos went live, and the figures in the management panel soared once again.

“Brother Fan, this time there are even more likes and comments!” Yong Pan said excitedly. “Looks like girls really do love watching handsome guys.”

“Of course they do.” Lin Qianfan smiled. “But good looks alone aren’t enough. There has to be some substance, too.”