June 17, Friday.
Shangyang Games.
Pei Qian had just walked into the conference room when he felt something was off.
Everyone seemed too dejected!
Their morale was even lower than when he had visited last week.
Pei Qian couldn’t help but worry.
Come on, comrades, you must stay positive!
If you all think you can’t win, won’t IOI truly be finished?
Besides, things haven’t reached the point of no return yet. The game is constantly being updated, and its development overseas is going well. Although it hasn’t beaten GOG in domestic internet cafés, it has still captured some market share!
Pei Qian sat down at the head of the conference table, feeling he needed to say something to boost morale.
How could they fight if they were already intimidated before the battle even began?
Pei Qian cleared his throat lightly: “Why is everyone so downhearted? Cheer up! The battle isn’t over yet, is it?”
Wang Xiaobin looked at Ye Zhizhou, and Ye Zhizhou looked at Lin Wan.
Lin Wan sighed softly: “Mr. Pei, we all know your intentions are good. You want GOG and IOI to compete fully, and whichever wins gets promoted. The group has even given IOI more funding. But… It’s just too difficult!”
“The gap between the two games hasn’t narrowed; it’s widening rapidly. In just one week, our ground promotion strategy has been completely overtaken and even surpassed by GOG.”
“We can only say that GOG’s side was better prepared and coordinated more closely than ours. When we try to offer suggestions to IOI, they don’t even accept them…”
Wang Xiaobin nodded, saying with indignation: “Yes, and Finger Company even criticizes us for poor promotion in China, even though development in other overseas regions is going well.”
“But the problem is, does GOG exist in those other overseas regions? I wanted to respond with ‘you can you up’ – you try competing with GOG and see if you survive!”
Ye Zhizhou nodded in agreement: “Exactly! It’s bad enough having teammates who drag us down, but they also keep shifting blame and making sarcastic remarks. Who can stand that?”
Wang Xiaobin looked at Pei Qian: “Mr. Pei, since we’re breeding competitors anyway, why doesn’t Tenda just buy out Finger Company’s entire stake? Then we can make them change however we want, or we could simply take over IOI. We wouldn’t be so constrained like now, feeling frustrated all the time.”
Pei Qian was shocked.
Buy out Finger Company’s entire stake?
Are you afraid I’m not dying fast enough?
Just as Pei Qian was about to speak, Lin Wan beat him to it: “No way. Do you think Mr. Pei hasn’t considered this?”
Pei Qian: “?”
Lin Wan continued: “Do you think Finger Company still has its previous valuation? When we bought 20% of the shares for just over 20 million earlier, it was because Mr. Pei had a sharp eye, essentially getting a great bargain.”
“Do you think good deals like this are as common as cabbages at the roadside?”
“Now that IOI is developing well, Finger Company’s valuation changes daily. To gain control of Finger Company, even with our existing 20% stake, we would need to spend at least another 100 million or even 150 million dollars.”
“Although Tenda Group has healthy cash flow, Mr. Pei always invests funds as quickly as possible to maximize their utilization.”
“Besides, even if we had spare cash, we certainly wouldn’t have a billion yuan.”
Wang Xiaobin had nothing more to say, because he also knew clearly that Tenda couldn’t possibly raise a billion yuan now even if they sold everything they had. This wasn’t a question of willingness but of capability.
Since they couldn’t buy it, there was nothing more to discuss.
Meanwhile, Pei Qian was silently shocked.
Damn, Finger Company is worth that much now?
Then… according to this valuation, the 20% stake bought for 20 million back then… should now be worth at least…
40 million… dollars???
It had increased more than tenfold in such a short time?
Pei Qian felt dizzy, while also mentally noting another grievance against Ma Yang.
For others, this would certainly be cause for tears of joy, but for Pei Qian, 40 million dollars converted to only 40,000 dollars, or about 280,000 yuan in income.
It still wasn’t as beneficial as making a loss…
A single operational mistake could even offset profits and losses, which would be truly heartbreaking.
However, this was just a valuation. There was no guarantee someone would pay this price, and if Tenda didn’t sell, there shouldn’t be a major problem…
The discussion reached another impasse.
Buying out Finger Company was impossible; it was now too valuable.
Directing Finger Company was also impossible; they wouldn’t listen and even tried to direct Tenda instead.
No wonder Shangyang Games’ people were so discouraged. After all, they were used to making games themselves and promoting them themselves. If they found a problem with the game, they would fix it themselves.
But now, even though they knew where the problem lay, the developers wouldn’t fix it and instead blamed the agent for operational and promotional issues. Who would want to put up with that?
Pei Qian cleared his throat again: “Everyone, there’s no need to be so impatient. Problems always have reasonable solutions. Besides, things aren’t that bad yet.”
Although GOG had an earlier start, IOI has also captured some market share in the previous competition. A small portion of this market share comes from old ‘Divine Awakening’ users, but the vast majority comes from players of other game types.”
“This shows that during the competition between GOG and IOI, new players are constantly being attracted. This is a good phenomenon. As long as we can maintain a foothold, there’s still a chance to turn things around.”
“Compared to GOG, besides those factors we can no longer change, like the head start advantage and game mechanics, IOI’s China server still has one major shortcoming that hasn’t been addressed: esports.”
“In the next phase, I’ll continue to allocate funds to you all to organize a large-scale tournament for IOI. We’ll maximize advertising funds to completely change the misconception that Tenda doesn’t value IOI’s esports project! ‘
However, after this speech, the crowd didn’t light up with excitement or break into applause as usual.
Wang Xiaobin thought for a moment, then said: “But Mr. Pei, for esports activities to gain traction, you need sufficient groundwork. Forget about players for a moment – where would the teams come from? We can’t just recruit people from the ranked ladder to form temporary teams, can we?”
Others nodded in agreement.
Pei Qian: “…”
It was a bit awkward.
Just as Pei Qian was struggling to think about this problem, Lin Wan spoke first.
“No, you all haven’t understood Mr. Pei’s deeper meaning.”
“If we contact the larger esports clubs in China now and have them establish IOI divisions, it’s entirely possible.”
Wang Xiaobin was stunned: “That’s unlikely, isn’t it? Given IOI’s current market share, if they’re going to form a team, they would form a GOG team. Money does help somewhat, but clubs also need to weigh long-term benefits. If we offer too little, they won’t be interested; if we offer too much, we lose out.”
If we offer too much, we lose out?
Isn’t that perfect?
Pei Qian’s eyes lit up, and he was about to speak when Lin Wan continued.
“We don’t need to offer too much.”
Pei Qian: “…”
Lin Wan continued: “I understand Mr. Pei’s intention now. Although we started late in the esports field, we have advantages over GOG in certain aspects.”
“Because IOI is more popular abroad!”
“Indeed, clubs forming teams tend to focus on long-term benefits, and for clubs, international competitions are the greatest long-term benefit!”
“For an esports title to have enough attention, it needs to be popular worldwide. Currently, although IOI isn’t as popular as GOG domestically, considering the potential for future international tournaments, forming an IOI team now is a very promising choice.”
“We can work on this aspect to persuade the major clubs in China!”
“I think this is Mr. Pei’s deeper meaning, right?”
Pei Qian cleared his throat: “Mmm… more or less.”
Everyone suddenly understood.
Yes, this did seem like an advantage!
Ye Zhizhou was also inspired: “Right! We can even invite two average-level teams from abroad, cover their food, accommodation, and round-trip airfare, create buzz, and call it an international invitational tournament. This would attract a lot of attention!”
When Pei Qian heard “cover their food, accommodation, and round-trip airfare,” his eyebrows immediately rose with joy.
Seeing Mr. Pei’s approving look toward Ye Zhizhou, everyone became more certain that this was indeed Mr. Pei’s complete thought process.
“Alright, let’s proceed according to Mr. Pei’s instructions and start preparations immediately!”
“I’ll contact domestic clubs.”
“I’ll invite foreign clubs.”
“Remember to choose weak teams, otherwise if the domestic teams get crushed, the whole thing will backfire!”
“I’ll scout venues and plan the schedule.”
Everyone quickly divided up the tasks, and the previously lifeless conference room instantly became full of energy again.
Pei Qian was very satisfied.
Although everyone had over-interpreted his words again, this time it seemed to have a positive effect!
Good, the meeting was a great success!
…
…
June 18, Saturday.
Management Trainee Meeting.
After settling matters with Shangyang Games yesterday, Pei Qian felt much of the burden had been lifted from his shoulders. Today, his steps were lighter as he came to the meeting.
“Let’s begin with the reports,” Tang Yishu, seeing everyone was present, signaled for the reports to begin while taking notes to compile into a report record later.
The management trainees began to speak in turn.
“The members of Tuoguan Fitness are now using the new APP, with positive feedback; the opening ceremony of Slackin’ Internet Café’s Esports Lifestyle Hall has greatly increased Tuoguan Fitness’s reputation, with many new customers coming to inquire; the new fitness meals have been delivered…”
“After the opening of Slackin’ Internet Café’s Esports Lifestyle Hall, it has been hugely successful. Although the fees are higher than the previous two versions of Slackin’ Internet Café, enthusiasm hasn’t diminished. More and more people are forming teams, and we expect to organize the first internet café tournament soon…”
“DGE Esports Club has returned to regular training. However, the feeling of being adored by fans at the Slackin’ Internet Café opening ceremony has greatly boosted the team members’ fighting spirit, and everyone is training harder…”
Listening to the management trainees’ reports, Pei Qian was speechless, his previous good mood completely gone.
Isn’t this supposed to be a management trainee meeting?
How did it turn into a funeral procession?
It’s bad enough that they’re all telling me things I already know, but they’re all bad news!
I went to great lengths to set up this management trainee meeting, and in the end, I just got stabbed in the back twice???
Getting stabbed once on-site, and then stabbed again at the management trainee meeting?
He was angry but couldn’t stop listening.
Because he didn’t know if there might be some useful information hidden in the reports. The management trainees couldn’t tell which information Mr. Pei already knew and which he didn’t, so they couldn’t filter it.
They could only report everything indiscriminately.
Pei Qian couldn’t help but fall into deep thought, wondering if something had gone wrong somewhere…