June 13th, Monday.
Tenda Games Department.
Shortly after work began, Min Jingchao hurriedly came to find Li Yada and Bao Xu.
“Sister Li, Brother Bao, we have a problem!”
“Shangyang Games has made another move!”
Since last weekend, it seems a large number of internet cafés have reached agreements with ioi’s China server. Anyone playing ioi at these cafés can receive discounts on hourly fees after accumulating a certain amount of playing time!”
“And it appears several well-known gaming content creators are uploading videos introducing ioi’s new heroes and tutorials. Many prominent gaming websites are also promoting it.”
“It looks like they’re competing with us in spending money!”
Li Yada paused for a moment while checking information on her computer. “Don’t panic. When did you say this started?”
Min Jingchao thought for a moment. “Signs of large-scale activity began appearing last Saturday.”
Bao Xu, who had been silent, said, “They worked over the weekend. Could we report them to Mr. Pei? Force them to take compensatory time off these two days?”
Min Jingchao was stunned momentarily, then his eyes lit up. “Oh! That’s right. If they’re forced to take compensatory leave these two days, we could catch up, couldn’t we?”
Li Yada shook her head. “That probably won’t work. Shangyang Games wouldn’t make such a basic mistake that we could exploit.”
“They most likely arranged everything on Friday, took normal weekend rest, but the content creators and internet cafés could implement these measures over the weekend.”
“This way, they could get ahead of us without violating company rules by exploiting the timing.”
Min Jingchao: “…Indeed, our people are the toughest opponents.”
Yes, who else but their colleagues would think of using the weekend rest time difference to get ahead?
And besides Brother Bao, who else would think of reporting overtime work to close this time gap?
It could only be said that under Tenda’s company rules, the competition between the two departments had become so surreal…
Li Yada continued, “Logically, they must have arranged their work plans before leaving on Friday. Now they’re surely busy contacting more internet cafés and content creators, launching a full-scale offensive.”
“And… the information we’ve found so far is mostly about large chain internet cafés. This indicates they’ve used the most efficient approach, directly negotiating with these large chains and offering favorable terms.”
“This way, the management of all chain cafés will voluntarily promote ioi in all their locations, since the more they promote, the greater their benefits!”
“Although it’s only been a weekend, we’re already far behind.”
Min Jingchao’s expression grew more serious.
He had just learned about this situation, and after Li Yada’s analysis, the problem seemed much more serious than he had imagined.
“So… what should we do?” Min Jingchao asked.
Li Yada considered for a moment. “Don’t panic. What has Mr. Pei taught us? When facing difficulties, don’t always think about solving them with overtime, time, or manpower.”
“As Mr. Pei said, there must be a better solution!”
Min Jingchao nodded, listening attentively.
For someone with his limited experience, this was indeed a very severe challenge. But for Li Yada, who had seen many ups and downs, as long as she drew wisdom from Mr. Pei, there would always be a solution.
After some consideration, Li Yada spoke methodically: “First, money problems can only be solved with money. Tenda’s success comes from not being afraid to spend. Promotion has now entered the white-hot stage of real combat. If they’re burning money, we can’t possibly not follow suit.”
“Immediately mobilize all the funds we can use and compete with them in spending! Internet cafés, content creators, website resources—we can buy them all with money!”
“If it’s purely a competition of spending, we both can only use 50% of our department profits. Tenda Games’ profits are greater than Shangyang Games’, so we don’t need to worry about funding at all.”
Bao Xu, who had been silent, said, “Shangyang Games won’t be that foolish. They likely know they can’t outspend us and probably have a backup plan.”
Min Jingchao was startled. “Backup plan? What kind of backup plan could they have? Surely they wouldn’t directly ask Mr. Pei for money?”
Bao Xu said, “That exists. If Mr. Pei wants to fully implement his strategy of letting them compete, not allowing us to immediately crush ioi, he would show some bias in his attitude.”
Min Jingchao was stunned, realizing this possibility existed.
Li Yada nodded. “That’s the second point I wanted to address.”
“To ensure absolute success, we need to put effort into other areas. We can’t just mindlessly burn money.”
“This promotional war is essentially about seizing promotional resources. Whoever secures more promotional resources will gain the upper hand.”
“Burning money is just one way to seize promotional resources. Besides spending, we can use other methods.”
“For instance… we can tell these people a story.”
Min Jingchao was puzzled, not quite understanding. “Tell a story? What kind of story?”
Li Yada explained, “Our current situation is very similar to the investment industry. To win investors’ favor, you either need solid products and profits, or strong storytelling ability to convince investors that we have better prospects.”
“Similarly, to win over all offline internet cafés and online content creators, besides money, we can tell them a story that clearly shows GOG has better prospects.”
“Once they believe our story and are attracted by long-term benefits, they won’t defect even if Shangyang Games raises their offer in the short term!”
“Once this is accomplished, the future we promised will inevitably be realized, forming an inherent closed loop.”
Min Jingchao suddenly understood. “I see! As long as we make everyone believe that GOG will ultimately triumph, they’ll promote GOG now to gain greater benefits in the future. Since our short-term benefits are insufficient, we’ll use long-term benefits as leverage and promises to entice them to take our side!”
“I’ll arrange for people to contact these chain internet cafés and content creators one by one…”
Li Yada raised her hand. “Don’t rush. Learn from Mr. Pei—don’t be hasty in your actions.”
“When faced with a problem where you’ve found the answer, don’t hurry to solve it. Think again—is there a better solution?”
“How do you think Mr. Pei has always managed to be so strategic? The key is to think more. This plan isn’t perfect yet.”
Min Jingchao continued to listen attentively.
Li Yada said, “If you go to persuade them one by one now, engaging in verbal battles? They’ve already received benefits from Shangyang Games. How much effort would it take to persuade them now?”
“While you persuade one, Shangyang Games has already developed three more. Are you in a tortoise-hare race here?”
“You need to learn to find key nodes, opinion leaders. First, focus on getting these opinion leaders to switch sides, then working on others will become much smoother.”
Min Jingchao asked, “Opinion leaders?”
Li Yada nodded. “Who are the opinion leaders among internet cafés?”
Min Jingchao frowned in deep thought. “In terms of market share, it’s hard to say. But… GOG and ioi both rely on Tenda as their backbone. Essentially, this is Tenda’s internal war. So, Tenda’s true intention is the most crucial.”
“It’s Slackin’ Internet Café! Slackin’ Internet Café’s attitude represents Tenda’s true internal attitude. Once Slackin’ Internet Café fully sides with GOG, other chain cafés will be influenced!”
Li Yada smiled slightly. “Congratulations, you’re increasingly entering Mr. Pei’s thinking domain.”
“Cautious assumption, bold verification—Slackin’ Internet Café is most likely the only solution Mr. Pei has left for us.”
Min Jingchao nodded. “Understood. I’ll go find Xiao Peng right away!”
Li Yada stopped him with her hand. “You’re the person in charge. You need to stay at the company to coordinate the overall situation. Brother Bao, you should make the trip personally.”
Bao Xu nodded silently.
Clearly, everything Li Yada had analyzed, he understood as well.
To persuade Slackin’ Internet Café, although Min Jingchao was in charge, his words didn’t carry enough weight.
A veteran from Tenda Games needed to step up for sufficient impact.
“So, where should I find him?” Bao Xu asked.
Min Jingchao looked at his phone. “Recently he seems to be busy with Slackin’ Internet Café 3.0. I’ll send you the address.”
“By the way, Xiao Peng contacted me earlier and had me create a small program that controls the RGB lights on computer cases based on in-game data from GOG. This might be used as a bargaining chip. Brother Bao, you might want to consider it.”
…
Slackin’ Internet Café 3.0.
At this moment, Xiao Peng was in agony.
Just last Friday, he had boasted to Zhang Yuan, speaking grandiose words about how he had completely predicted Mr. Pei’s next move, even fooling Zhang Yuan.
As a result, his prediction went wrong!
On Friday, Shangyang Games had already approached him with very favorable terms, seeking cooperation between Slackin’ Internet Café and ioi’s China server, including free trial of certain skins when playing at the café, discounts on hourly fees after accumulating certain playing time, and so on.
Xiao Peng hadn’t immediately agreed, saying he needed to consider for a couple of days and would respond on Monday.
Because the entire Slackin’ Internet Café 3.0 had been designed around GOG!
For example, the RGB lights on computers would only have those cool effects when playing GOG. If the entire café promoted ioi and ioi players became the vast majority, wouldn’t the lighting effects be completely wasted?
Moreover, he had already arranged with Zhang Yuan to invite GOG players for exhibition matches. If they promoted ioi, what would be the point of GOG exhibition matches?
Of course, they could promote both.
But what made Xiao Peng conflicted was Mr. Pei’s attitude in all this.
Which side was Mr. Pei on?
Mr. Pei was magnanimous—even if Xiao Peng backed the wrong side, he needn’t worry about being treated unfairly. But if backing the wrong side affected Mr. Pei’s long-term plans, that would be an enormous sin.
So, Xiao Peng was in agony, not knowing what to do.
Just then, his phone vibrated.
Seeing the message from Min Jingchao, Xiao Peng’s eyes lit up.
Finally!
The person who could represent Tenda Games and interpret Mr. Pei’s true intentions had arrived!