Industry insiders believed that, the exposure of the two companies increased as their verbal sparring went on. When the public were watching for amusement, perhaps Li Guoqing and Liu Qiangdong were sitting behind the computer screens, gloating over the huge advertising costs they had saved. Netizens joked: "Is a war of words a promotional video? One episode after another, the publicity effect is no worse than advertisements." This kind of seemingly irrational mockery coincided subtly with Dangdang's official announcement on April 1st to stop all advertising and search bidding on Baidu.