Livestream Matchmaking: My Intel Infinitely Refreshes

Chapter 10: Chapter 10: Operating a TikTok Account

Boss He of the Zhuyin Marriage Agency stared at the sincere-looking Zhang Zhe, a million questions popping up in her head.

’This is nuts,’ she thought. ’To think I’d run into someone like this.’

Today really was a lesson in biodiversity.

To be honest, the marriage agency wasn’t short on staff at all.

In fact, they had just let go of a batch of unqualified Matchmakers last month.

The matchmaking industry was fiercely competitive these days. Even an established agency like theirs couldn’t afford to carry dead weight.

But after confirming for the third time that Zhang Zhe was only here to learn the ropes and didn’t want a single penny, Boss He decided the agency was, in fact, short-staffed again.

They didn’t carry dead weight here, but a young man not on the payroll? He clearly didn’t count.

”Alright, why don’t you have a seat for a moment.”

”I need to think about this.”

Boss He pointed to the sofa nearby.

Zhang Zhe smiled and nodded.

Anyone who’d been to a lot of interviews knew that when a boss said they needed to ”think about it,” they weren’t considering whether to hire you anymore, but rather what position to put you in.

As long as there was a suitable role, getting the job was a sure thing.

To make Boss He’s decision-making process easier, Zhang Zhe promptly handed over his resume.

It was a perfect resume, one that could get him into any major tech company.

However, in the matchmaking industry, almost none of the information on it was useful.

Boss He stood to the side, studying it for a long time, and summarized Zhang Zhe’s three main qualities:

A hardworking wage slave;

A graduate of a 211 university, so he was probably smart;

And he’d worked as a programmer, so he knew the internet.

Poor Zhang Zhe. His eight years of software testing experience were summed up in a single phrase: ”knows the internet.”

”Not bad, kid, not bad at all.” Boss He walked over to Zhang Zhe, resume in hand. ”Your experience in the tech industry is exactly what a traditional marriage agency like ours is missing.”

”It would be a waste of your talent to have you do clerical work.”

”You don’t have experience as a Matchmaker, so you probably wouldn’t be good at it.”

”I’ve thought it over carefully. How about you help us run the agency’s Douyin account?”

”We were originally looking to hire someone for online operations, but our budget is too small, so we never found the right person.”

”You seem like a perfect fit.”

Zhang Zhe’s eyes lit up when he heard this.

’Run a Douyin account?’

His mind immediately jumped to the crappy Matchmaker, Li Erniang, whom he had encountered yesterday.

’Douyin is great! It’s down-to-earth and reaches a lot of people.’

A marriage agency’s Douyin account was used for two things: livestreaming and posting short videos.

Since he’d be in charge of operations, he’d definitely be responsible for posting videos.

Zhang Zhe quickly asked, ”Will there be people livestreaming on our Douyin account?”

”Of course,” Boss He nodded. ”That’s what I want you to help with.”

”Most of our senior Matchmakers are a bit older. They aren’t very familiar with Douyin and often can’t manage the technical side by themselves.”

”So when they go live, you can help them adjust the equipment, and after the stream is over, you can edit the highlights...”

If the agency’s boss hadn’t told him herself, Zhang Zhe would never have believed that such a large marriage agency had no professional livestreaming team.

The livestream schedule was random;

The hosts were not fixed—whoever was free would go on;

During the streams, there were no moderators in the chat;

And all the short videos on the account were edited by Boss He herself.

In short, the agency didn’t take Douyin livestreaming seriously at all.

The reason was simple: they were already swamped with offline work, with one matchmaking session after another, and they occasionally had to organize group matchmaking events for companies or government institutions.

There was simply no need to find clients online.

But on second thought, it made sense. As the largest marriage agency in Qing City, if even their Matchmakers had to resort to livestreaming for advertisements, the entire matchmaking market in Qing City was probably on the brink of collapse.

At Zhang Zhe’s request, Boss He showed him the agency’s official account: [Qing City Zhuyin Marriage Agency].

The account’s condition wasn’t bad. It had a blue V verification on Douyin, which at least meant the name was unique.

The number of followers was a bit low, only 42,000.

Considering that Qing City had a permanent population of over 5 million, the follower count was less than one percent of the population. This didn’t match the Zhuyin Marriage Agency’s reputation in the city at all.

Zhang Zhe felt it should have at least 200,000 followers.

But considering the account had only posted about 30 videos in total, and the last livestream was on the 5th of last month, having tens of thousands of followers with such low activity was already pretty good.

”When we first created the account, we did try to run it seriously for a while,” Boss He explained. ”But we quickly discovered that using Douyin for matchmaking is very inefficient.”

”And the clients’ willingness to pay is low.”

”It doesn’t make any money...”

”Everyone felt that livestreaming was a waste of time, so the account gradually became idle. Whoever felt like messing around with it would just stream for a bit.”

Zhang Zhe could tell that even now, the woman in front of him didn’t really care about the agency’s Douyin account.

She was only bringing it up because she had stumbled upon a young man who would work for free.

Perhaps it was just as she said; they probably didn’t need a security guard. Otherwise, she would have definitely assigned Zhang Zhe to be a guard instead of running the Douyin account.

”Have you ever run a Douyin account before?” Boss He asked.

Zhang Zhe told the truth. ”No, but I was a part-time streamer back in college. I know my way around these kinds of online accounts.”

After speaking, he expertly performed a few flashy hand gestures.

Boss He stared, momentarily stunned.

The woman took a moment to process before asking, ”So, what do you think of this position? Is it something you’d like?”

”Of course! If you let me run this account, not only will I not take any money, I guarantee I’ll grow your followers.”

”Really? This account got 40,000 followers in its first month, but it’s only gained a little over 2,000 in the two years since.”

”Of course it’s true. I’m that confident.”

Zhang Zhe already had a plan for what to do with the account.

He would use it to livestream, of course, to realize his ”one-man version of *If You Are the One*” plan.

It was a blue V account, after all, which made livestreaming very convenient.

Plus, the Zhuyin Marriage Agency had a well-known reputation. With a little money spent on promotion in the beginning, it would be easy to get the ball rolling—much easier than starting a new account from scratch.

He didn’t need to turn it into a viral sensation; having half the audience of Li Erniang would be enough.

That would be enough to guarantee Zhang Zhe could go on at least five blind dates a day, with no repeats.

Of course, reality was bound to be harder than he imagined, and there would undoubtedly be obstacles along the way.

But it’s always good to have powerful backing. Even just to try, using the Zhuyin Marriage Agency’s account gave him a much better chance.

Seeing Zhang Zhe so confident, Boss He felt a little tempted.

But she still had one concern: if Zhang Zhe used the officially verified account to do something that offended people and damaged the agency’s reputation, the loss would far outweigh any gain.

However, she quickly came up with a suitable solution.

”Since you’re willing, Xiaozhang, the account is yours to run from now on.”

”But I can’t just take advantage of you for free.”

”You might like working for free, but that’s your business. Our agency has its own principles.”

”How about this? We’ll sign a management contract.”

”You help run it for one month. For every new follower you gain—and no buying followers, mind you—we’ll pay you one yuan.”

”Of course, for every follower you lose, you’ll pay us one yuan.”

”How about it? How much money you make will depend entirely on your own ability.”