January 26th, Wednesday.
Dream Realization Venture Capital.
Pei Qian sipped his tea, listening to He Desheng’s report while his mind wandered.
Ruan Guangjian had left, and the last exam of finals week was over. This should have been a double blessing, but Pei Qian still felt somewhat empty.
The Spring Festival was only a week away. Watching his classmates leave for home one by one, Pei Qian himself still had to deal with company matters.
How utterly miserable!
He wished he could just let go of everything-no, not die, just stop managing—but he couldn’t help it. If he didn’t look for trouble, trouble would find him.
Dream Realization Venture Capital had two issues at hand: one was the domestic Chinese server for IOI, and the other was the “Scholars Come Quick” app.
Currently, IOI’s testing in Europe and America was going quite well. Logically, preparations for the Chinese server should be starting soon.
At this stage, many domestic gaming companies had already noticed IOI’s promising performance during testing in the West and were eager to secure the domestic distribution rights early.
However, when they inquired at Finger Games, they discovered that the domestic distribution rights had already been claimed…
So, these companies could only hope that Dream Realization Venture Capital would resell the rights if they wanted to obtain the domestic distribution rights for IOI.
With so many companies interested, the bidding price naturally kept rising.
“Boss Pei, so shall we… sell?” He Desheng concluded his lengthy report with a soul-searching question.
Pei Qian was silent for a moment: “Tell me again, what’s the highest offer now?”
He Desheng: “Thirty-five million.”
Pei Qian silently put down his teacup, feeling like he wanted to let out a long sigh to the heavens.
35 million yuan!
The domestic distribution rights currently held by Dream Realization Venture Capital had been given for free when they bought shares in Finger Games…
At that time, they had spent only 20 million yuan to buy just over 20% of Finger Games’ shares, which they still held. Now, just by selling the domestic distribution rights, they would receive 35 million yuan.
Even robbery wasn’t this profitable.
Pei Qian immediately shook his head: “Reject them all, don’t sell!”
Pei Qian knew very well that if he took this money, there would be no hope of losing money this cycle!
With only two months until the settlement, what could he possibly do to spend over 30 million yuan while ensuring the project went online? It was too risky!
So, he definitely couldn’t sell!
He Desheng strongly agreed: “Right, that’s what I thought too! 35 million is too little. If we hold onto it a bit longer, we can sell it for even more!”
Pei Qian: “?”
He Desheng’s face beamed with joy as he continued: “Boss Pei, I’ve done my research. The major domestic companies are now paying astronomical figures for distribution rights to foreign games!”
“The distribution fee for the latest version of ‘Fantasy World’ was 30 million US dollars—nearly 200 million yuan!”
“From what we can see now, IOI’s popularity might reach the level of ‘Fantasy World’ in the future. They think they can buy it from us for just 35 million yuan? No way!”
“Of course, this is also because IOI has just started testing, and Finger Games itself isn’t that famous yet.”
“In short, we’re in no hurry. As long as IOI’s popularity continues to rise abroad, the distribution fee will increase further!”
Pei Qian: “…”
We’re not thinking about the same thing at all!
Pei Qian was thinking that if he sold now, this cycle’s settlement would be ruined—there was no way to spend 35 million yuan. So he couldn’t sell.
Meanwhile, He Desheng was thinking that 35 million was clearly too low and they should continue to drive up the price!
After hearing He Desheng’s words, Pei Qian felt somewhat inclined to sell.
But on second thought, he still couldn’t sell.
In the short term, selling would affect the settlement; in the long term, if IOI could truly reach a level worth billions, then Pei Qian might as well just lie back and make money.
After considering for a moment, Pei Qian said, “What I mean is, not only can’t we sell, we need to specifically open another company to operate IOI’s domestic server!”
He Desheng was stunned for a moment, then quickly nodded: “That’s good too!”
“This way, we can keep this money tree in our own hands and make money continuously!”
Pei Qian: “…”
Believe whatever you want to believe. I don’t want to say anything more—it’s exhausting!
Pei Qian decided to establish his own company to operate IOI’s domestic server, mainly for two reasons.
On one hand, since they had already obtained the domestic distribution rights, it would be suspicious if they neither used them nor sold them.
On the other hand, operating it themselves would allow them to spend more money!
As a real-time battle game, whether IOI or GOG, the server requirements would be the highest among all of Tenda’s current games, which would inevitably result in a substantial expenditure on servers.
At the same time, the initial promotion of IOI would also require a lot of money.
This way, at least they could ensure a loss within this cycle.
As for the future…
If IOI truly became a money tree, earning more than they could lose, then Pei Qian might consider simply becoming idle, relying on the 1000:1 profit conversion ratio to earn some pocket money.
Pei Qian didn’t want to dwell too much on the IOI issue. In any case, they definitely couldn’t sell now; they could only proceed step by step and grit their teeth to move forward.
“Anyway, there’s no rush on this matter. Let’s discuss it after the New Year.”
“What about ‘Scholars Come Quick’?”
“The previous three million should be almost spent, right?” Pei Qian asked casually.
During this period, the “Scholars Come Quick” project had been burning money continuously—whether on advertising or subsidies, there were expenses everywhere.
Although it wasn’t as terrifying as the crazy money-burning of shared bicycle companies deploying bikes everywhere, the initial funding was only three million yuan after all, which would be quickly spent.
He Desheng, nodded: “Almost. There’s less than one million left in the account.”
“But don’t worry, Boss Pei. Recently, several investment companies have shown strong interest in the ‘Scholars Come Quick’ project and want to make follow-up investments!”
The teacup that Pei Qian was about to bring to his lips stopped midway: “…Huh?”
You want to invest in such an unreliable project? Did you burn your brains out?
The “Scholars Come Quick” app had already been revised.
Previously, Pei Qian had discovered that this app had an unhealthy tendency to become a dating platform, so he had decisively taken measures to make major changes to some functions.
Now, all user options on the platform had no gender, no photos, just names and default avatars.
When viewing a scholar’s profile, one could only see their rating and system-default tags given by others, such as: good teaching attitude, patient, easy to understand, and so on.
The profiles of the students were similar, with ratings and system-default tags like: listens attentively, good learning attitude, polite, and so on.
According to the current standard process, students would fill in their requirements on the app, including the subjects they needed tutoring in, the time, and the agreed location. Scholars would independently accept orders, and the entire communication would have to use the app’s built-in chat function. Throughout the entire process, one could not clearly know the other person’s gender or appearance.
Of course, some people would inevitably try to inquire about the other person’s gender before meeting. For such cases, the app had specifically designed a “one-click complaint” feature. Once clicked, it would automatically submit the chat history between both parties for review and terminate the tutoring session.
Once it was verified that an account had attempted to probe the other person’s gender or appearance, the account would be immediately penalized—light penalties involved deducting credibility points, while severe cases could result in a permanent ban linked to both the ID card and phone number.
As soon as this new version of the app was updated, the number of active users plummeted!
This was because the app already had a large number of users with impure intentions who were only using it as a platform to encounter the opposite sex.
Just as there are many drivers in ride-hailing apps who deliberately pick up beautiful girls and discuss them privately, there were plenty of such people in the “Scholars Come Quick” app.
Moreover, face-to-face tutoring naturally created opportunities for such encounters. If left unchecked, it would likely become even more serious than ride-hailing apps.
The new version update completely extinguished these people’s fantasies.
So, the sharp drop in the app’s popularity was entirely normal.
Pei Qian had originally thought that this new version would surely cause a heavy blow to the “Scholars Come Quick” project, and then he could quickly burn through the few million yuan and be done with it.
He never expected that there would still be several investment companies wanting to make follow-up investments!
Pei Qian fell into deep thought.
Originally, he had planned to quickly burn through the three million, and then he could legitimately announce that the project had failed and let it naturally fade away.
But now, before the money was even fully spent, more people were rushing to give money! What could he do?
Pei Qian wanted to refuse, but he had no reason to!
Li’s Fuhui Capital had already invested one million; other investment companies didn’t want many shares, and the “Scholars Come Quick” project was currently short on funds…
What reason could he give for refusing?
After considering for a moment, Pei Qian had an idea.
Why not lay out all the unreliable aspects of this project to these companies, making them retreat in the face of difficulties?
With this in mind, Pei Qian said to He Desheng: “Call these investment companies right now and clarify two things.”
“First, ask them exactly why they want to invest in the ‘Scholars Come Quick’ project.”
“Second, explain all the problems that ‘Scholars Come Quick’ is currently facing, and make clear the risks this project has beforehand!”
The purpose of the first question was simple: he wanted to ask these people what they found reliable about the “Scholars Come Quick” project so that he could change it.
He Desheng was a bit confused.
What did Boss Pei mean?
Why did these investment companies want to invest in the “Scholars Come Quick” project? Obviously because they thought the project was reliable!
This should be a concern for these investment companies, right? They’re the ones giving money, we’re the ones receiving it!
He Desheng pondered deeply and thought to himself: “Perhaps Boss Pei hopes I can use this method to deduce the successful aspects of this project? To deepen my understanding of investment principles?”
“Yes, that’s the only reasonable explanation.”
“But why does Boss Pei also want to explain all the risks of this project to all investors?”
Other projects typically try to hoodwink investment companies as much as possible, reporting only the good news but not the bad, to get more investment.
If we reveal all our cards, would they still give us money?
He Desheng couldn’t quite figure it out, but seeing Boss Pei’s unquestionable gaze, he didn’t dare to ask more questions. He simply called each of these investment companies one by one.
Pei Qian silently listened from the side.
He Desheng was very obedient, following Pei Qian’s prior instructions completely. First, he asked about the other party’s view on the “Scholars Come Quick” project, then he launched into a lengthy discourse about the problems the project was currently facing.
For instance, the current active users were not quite sufficient to support market demand, the app’s update led to a plunge in popularity and daily active users, and currently the functions were still relatively simple, and so on.
Sure enough, two companies immediately backed out!
Before investing, these investment companies would conduct some research, but no matter how much research they did, they couldn’t access certain internal data.
Some investment companies simply valued education as an industry with good prospects, recognized that this company had the backing of Tenda and Fuhui Capital, felt it was a relatively reliable project, and thus considered follow-up investment.
But now that He Desheng had frankly explained the real situation the project was facing, especially emphasizing the huge risks the project faced, possibly resulting in a total loss of investment.
As a result, investment companies immediately started to retreat. After making three consecutive calls, the investment enthusiasm of all three investment companies was doused, regressing from a state of readiness to invest to a state of wait-and-see.