Super Zoo

The celebrity live stream continued until the zoo was about to close in the afternoon.

Live streaming differs from acting, as hosts don't need to consume mental and physical energy, and unlike other online live streams that rely on "selling sex" for money, our hosts didn't need to sing or dance, which saved their energy, so the live stream could last a long time.

By the time Xiaomei arrived at around two o'clock, she even managed to take a nap, completely baffling everyone with her ability to sleep so much.

After waking up, she discovered that not only had the number of people in the live broadcast room not decreased, but it had increased, and a huge pile of gifts had appeared.

Mr. Han had a similar experience.

The environment at Whisperwind Pavilion was just too nice, quiet and the air fresh. Leaning on a rattan chair, with a gentle breeze and the warm sun shining on him, Haidong Qing eating fish beside him, he sat and dozed off. In the live broadcast room, it was clear to see saliva dripping down from the corner of his mouth.

If this were a formal news or entertainment program and the host fell asleep during the program, it would undoubtedly be a colossal blunder.

But on online live streaming platforms, it's a different story altogether – audiences are there to see another side of celebrities, their private lives. As soon as Mr. Han started drooling, gifts from viewers below came flooding in.

"He made money even in his sleep," someone later described this live stream event.

After the celebrity live broadcast ended, Shen Yan reported the data.

The number of viewers in the three celebrity rooms rose steadily, reaching a peak of nearly fifty thousand.

Within those few hours, the three celebrity rooms received gifts totaling over 120,000 yuan in value. The most gifts were received during Mr. Han's drooling and Xiaomei's nap times.

Of these, roughly 70% were for the celebrities themselves, and 30% were for the animals.

After the celebrities finished their live broadcasts, the live streams of other animal rooms continued. Celebrities can't possibly be in front of the camera 24/7, but it's no problem for the animals; the ordinary animal rooms are live streaming non-stop, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Learning from the experiences of Shanghai Zoo's live streaming platform, Yangchuan City Zoo cleverly installed cameras so they could almost always capture the animals' full range of activities and ensure that the animals were always visible on camera.

The animals at Yangchuan Zoo had all been more or less exposed to Suming's spiritual power and had developed a certain "sensibility." Suming had communicated with all of the animals in advance, and while they were somewhat sensitive to the cameras, they often performed for them.

Some of the animals with more aloof characters, like the wolves, would not intentionally perform; they would just coldly glare at the camera with a sidelong look each time they passed by.

Nonetheless, this was much better than the previous live streams at Shanghai Zoo since the animals and the viewers on the other side of the camera developed a certain level of communication.

However, there were many animals with livelier personalities who relished performing in front of the camera.

For instance, after filming "You Wouldn't Believe It If They Died," the monkeys learned a new skill: dancing. They often lined up and wiggled their red bottoms at the camera.

The dolphin family, naturally playful and especially the two baby dolphins, would swim for a while and then pop their heads out to wave at the camera or perform a water-treading maneuver.

The bears would sit under the tree in front of the camera, hugging watermelons, their fur dripping with juice. Their primary skill was eating; watching the three large bears chomp through a huge amount of food was appetizing.

The liveliest of all were the two parrot sisters.

These two chatterboxes were always babbling non-stop, but now with a camera in front of them, they went utterly mad, spending all day in front of it, taking turns delivering a comic dialogue.

"Hello everyone, my name is Donkey Qian!"

"I know, I know, drinking, smoking, and perm!"

...

So even when there were no celebrity hosts, the zoo's live streaming platform still retained its popularity, with new fans continually coming to watch.

Most people were quite compassionate and, upon learning that the gifted items would go towards improving the animals' lives, protection and construction of the zoo, many generously opened their wallets.

Within just a few days, due to human compassion, the novelty of this unique live streaming model, and the animals' inclination to perform, the popularity of the live streams rose sharply. Just the gifts received in the various animal live stream rooms had reached a staggering figure.

Mrs. Tong could hardly believe the statistics.

If everything went smoothly, she could foresee that in the future, the revenue from live streaming would make up a significant portion of the zoo's income, even surpassing ticket sales.

Even now, more than twenty animals were able to sustain themselves through the gifts given by viewers during live streams.

The zoo's largest expense was the cost of feeding and managing the animals, so if live streaming could cover this expense, the zoo would nearly have no major expenses left.

"This is something I could never have imagined in real life," Mrs. Tong said cheerfully while chatting with the staff. "If you had told me before, I would never have believed that our zoo could make money so easily."

Indeed, it was easy, as the zoo hardly did anything: Taoyuan Company operated the live streaming platform, and Shen Yan's company's development department handled the technical side. The zoo just had to sit back and wait for its share of the profit.

"Mr. Su really has a good head on his shoulders to keep up with the times," Mr. Peng said with a laugh. Although Suming was the deputy director, he had once been Mr. Peng's apprentice, and mentioning Suming always made Mr. Peng feel proud.

"Obviously. Otherwise, how could someone his age become the deputy director and a distinguished entrepreneur? He started as a temp worker, inconspicuous and modest; who would have thought he was so capable. The old director really had an eye for talent," Mrs. Tong remarked with emotion.

In the medical office, Mr. Liao and his wife were feeling frustrated again; every time Suming achieved success and appeared before everyone's eyes, they regretted not being more competitive in the past.

And Hu was actually putting on makeup!

Clearly, she wasn't too familiar with the technique; looking into a small mirror, she had smeared lipstick onto her cheeks.

"I told you, it's too late for regrets now," Hu said with her lips pursed. She already had a big mouth, and with it fully coated in lipstick, it looked like a gaping maw.

The veterinarian read the newspaper without looking up and teased, "Who are you putting on lipstick for? It's pretty clear Su Meng isn't into that. Instead of doing this, why don't you make me some herbal tea; I've been suffering from insomnia..."

"What does herbal tea have to do with insomnia? Besides, who said I'm definitely putting on makeup for Su Meng? Can't I enjoy looking beautiful?" Nurse Hu glared.

"If you really loved beauty, you wouldn't put on any more lipstick. It's quite scary to look at, like a monster coming down the mountain. Oh, right, Su Meng has the look of a wild man; maybe he'd actually like it."

Jiao Shou kept up his sarcastic comments while turning a page of the newspaper, continuing without looking up to speak to Mr. Liao, "And you two, stop crying all the time. Although you missed out on a big tree, there's still a whole forest out there. Liang Shi and Mr. Su's classmate, what's his name, oh, Shen Yan—both are single. You could try flirting with them."

...

Yangchuan Zoo's live streaming platform had achieved certain success, and the news quickly spread through the industry.

The online platform offered recorded streams, and the real leaders of several famous zoos organized viewings of the recordings to learn from their experiences.

When a deputy director from Shanghai Zoo saw someone sending gifts labeled 'prehistoric giant crocodile,' his eyeballs nearly popped out. It wasn't until the cigarette in his hand burned down to his fingers that he flinched from the pain, dropped the cigarette, and asked the technician beside him, "Li, when we created our online zoo, why didn't we do the same?"

Compared to Yangchuan City Zoo's live streaming platform, although Shanghai Online Zoo was the first of its kind, it lagged far behind in terms of visual effects in the streaming rooms and interactions with the audience, not to mention the lack of a gift-giving feature.

The technician replied with a bitter smile, "Boss, it's not a fair comparison."

"Why, is it difficult on a technical level?" the deputy director asked, puzzled.

"It's not a technical issue; implementing a gift-giving function is easy. But our zoo's situation is different from theirs. Look, they've hired celebrities—there's the star effect for you. Besides, Yangchuan Zoo's animals perform, each one trained to act just like humans; that's how they attract viewers. Our animals, on the other hand, do nothing but sleep; even if we add a gift-giving function, nobody would use it."

The leader was a reasonable man, and the technician hit the nail on the head. Celebrities aside, the key was the animals.

Yangchuan City's animals were lively, cute, endearingly silly, or at the very least haughtily aloof—each had its own charm. Compared to them, the animals from other zoos seemed more like patients with autism and depression—how could they possibly attract an audience?

"We also have animals that can perform. Our dolphins can jump through hoops and balance balls; we could definitely train them further to create a new source of revenue," the deputy director thought. He was not old-fashioned and had an open mind. Since the technology to implement a 'gift-giving' feature was not difficult, and Yangchuan Zoo had already blazed a successful trail, they could easily replicate it. Even if they couldn't match Yangchuan Zoo's excellence, it would still be better than letting the online platform continue to lose money.

Meanwhile, leaders from other zoos, including Capital Zoo and Shu Zoo, who were watching the live stream, were entertaining the same thought: to imitate Yangchuan City Zoo by establishing their own live streaming platforms and training animals to perform.