Recently, an internet-driven 'nostalgia trend' has gained momentum. Tencent has just relaunched the classic game 'QQ Farm' and Tianya Club has announced it will resume operations on June 1.

As one of China's earliest well-known online forums, Tianya was once the serialized home for works such as 'Ghost Blows Out the Light' and 'Those Stories About the Ming Dynasty.' However, with the rise of mobile internet and short-form video platforms, Tianya gradually declined and suspended operations in 2023 due to cash flow issues. Its relaunch has primarily evoked a wave of 'nostalgia'—can this platform, affectionately dubbed by netizens as an 'ancient forum,' usher in a new era?

The key to its success or failure lies in whether Tianya can avoid merely monetizing nostalgia for short-term gains and instead genuinely unlock the long-term value of its content. Otherwise, it risks rapidly depleting its remaining brand equity.

This relaunch introduces a triple-pronged framework: 'community + e-commerce + Web3.0' On one hand, it aims to restore classic forum sections and re-engage legacy users, reaffirming its identity as a deep-text community. On the other, it plans to develop the Tianya Ke consumer platform and an overseas Web3.0 decentralized community, seeking to achieve 'self-sustaining growth'.

This model directly addresses two chronic pain points of traditional online communities: overreliance on advertising revenue and lack of sustainable profitability; and platform-dominated governance that fails to balance user experience and community atmosphere, leading to user attrition. If Tianya's proposed member co-creation mechanism and IP-based digital asset trading can be successfully implemented, it may offer a transformative blueprint—integrating 'content + business + governance'—for other deep-content platforms like Zhihu and Douban.

However, Tianya urgently needs to redefine its positioning. Zhihu specializes in in-depth Q&A, Douban has become a haven for intellectual and cultural expression, and Xiaohongshu dominates lifestyle sharing—what unique niche can Tianya carve out for itself?

From a personal perspective, one hopes for its successful return. After decades of breakneck internet development, have we lost the patience to read long posts and the excitement of engaging in profound discussions with strangers? If Tianya's revival succeeds, it could catalyze a broader resurgence of deep-content ecosystems and compel the industry to reflect on the pitfalls of a 'traffic-at-all-costs' mentality.

Currently, short-form videos and algorithm-driven recommendations dominate the content landscape, with lightweight, entertainment-focused, and fragmented content becoming the norm. Spaces for deep discussion have been squeezed, users are trapped in 'filter bubbles,' and platforms are mired in 'homogenized competition.' Tianya's core competitive advantage—its open, inclusive, and intellectually rich community atmosphere—is precisely what is missing today.

If Tianya can uphold this core strength and meet users’ demand for systematic knowledge and rational discourse, it might pressure mainstream platforms to rethink their content strategies. Yet significant challenges remain: younger users are accustomed to short-video socialization, and their receptiveness to the BBS model is uncertain. Whether Tianya can simultaneously re-engage its legacy users and attract new ones will determine its long-term viability.

This relaunch may serve as a litmus test for whether a deep-content ecosystem can make a broad comeback. Can 'Tianya' still be 'Tianya'? The answer remains to be seen.

【本文部分内容由AI辅助生成，特此声明。The author(s) generated part of the content in this work with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI), which is hereby declared.】