Zhang Yuan was silent for a moment, thinking that he had no reason to refuse.
Peng Bin’s offer was already full of sincerity.
Currently, it could be considered the wild west era of the streaming industry. Various investors were rushing in after seeing the opportunity, and a money-burning war between streaming platforms was imminent.
YiYi Live Streaming, as one of the earliest streaming platforms, had relatively strong financial resources and could afford to be more generous in this area.
From the current perspective, a price of 2 million yuan per year was already quite high. After all, how many corporate executives earned 2 million yuan annually?
As for those astronomical figures signed by top streamers, on one hand, it was because various capital investors had entered and frantically driven up prices; on the other hand, there was also a lot of water in those numbers, with a large element of exaggeration.
At least for Huang Wang personally, he certainly never imagined that he, a gaming-addicted youth who was eating instant noodles in internet cafes just a year ago, could sign such a big contract.
Of course, for now, Peng Bin was only willing to offer this price to Huang Wang alone, mainly considering three aspects: personal skill, eloquence, and image (muscles).
He judged that Huang Wang was a worthy investment, a player with great potential for generating discussion and prospects, very suitable for making a living as a streamer.
As for the 2 million yuan sponsorship for DGE Club, there were naturally very realistic interests to consider.
Peng Bin had already learned some information about the DGE Club from the H4 Club, and the points that interested him also had three aspects:
DGE was currently the top-tier club in China with unmatched strength.
DGE Club was taking the lead in arranging practice matches between teams.
DGE Club was being funded by Tenda, and the club manager had once been Mr. Pei’s trusted lieutenant.
For such a club, did they need to worry about a lack of exposure?
If there was no exposure, why would Tenda spend money supporting them?
After the previous GOG matches, Peng Bin felt he had reason to suspect that Tenda had prepared the DGE Club in advance, just to achieve a catfish effect!
DGE Club’s high-intensity challenge to other clubs before the GOG competition had improved the competitive level of all teams, helping these teams quickly move toward standardization.
To say this was an unexpected pleasant surprise, Peng Bin didn’t believe it.
DGE Club was an important strategic element in Tenda’s promotion of GOG!
In the future, the DGE Club might even play a role in standardizing the competitive environment of major clubs, becoming a model for all clubs to learn from.
Audiences naturally worshipped the strong. As long as DGE Club’s strength remained consistently at the top, there would always be opportunities for exposure.
Moreover, these 2 million yuan could also earn some goodwill with Tenda, so why not?
On Zhang Yuan’s side, he was equally happy to accept this money.
Zhang Yuan also hoped that his team members could stand out, gain more attention, and live better lives, so the 2 million yuan from the streaming platform for Huang Wang—the club wouldn’t take a penny.
And for the DGE Club, why refuse when others were giving them money?
200 million wasn’t a lot, but it certainly wasn’t a small amount either. Other clubs would be envious of such an opportunity.
For a club, income mainly came from a limited number of sources: investments and advertising sponsorships, competition prize money, streaming platform signing fees, team uniforms and merchandise, player transfer fees, and so on.
Most clubs weren’t profitable, but not being profitable didn’t mean they didn’t want to be profitable.
DGE couldn’t count on competition prize money, and team uniforms and merchandise weren’t promising at the moment either. If they also refused investments and advertising, wouldn’t they just become a purely money-burning public welfare organization? That certainly wouldn’t be appropriate.
Making a symbolic 2 million yuan first, for Mr. Pei, this small amount of money would be insignificant. The main purpose was to send a signal: DGE Club could make a profit, so Mr. Pei shouldn’t worry!
The more Zhang Yuan thought about it, the more appropriate it seemed. Both parties quickly reached an agreement and immediately arranged to sign the contract when time permitted.
…
…
August 8th, Monday.
In the morning, Pei Qian arrived at Shangyang Games.
He was very concerned about the GOG world server.
Of course, he didn’t care about GOG’s market share overseas. He mainly wanted to know how that money was being spent—until every dollar of those 70 million was spent, Mr. Pei wouldn’t be able to rest easy.
In the conference room, everyone quickly gathered.
Everyone could sense that Mr. Pei was very concerned about the GOG world server issue, feeling the heavy responsibility on his shoulders.
Ye Zhizhou began to report on the status of the GOG world server.
“Mr. Pei, the English translation of GOG has been completed and will be launched in Europe and North America soon. As for the promotional strategy, there are currently three main directions: online advertising, streamer promotion, and channel marketing.”
“The current strategy is mainly to test the waters, since we’re unfamiliar with the overseas situation. We’ll try it out a bit first, and if the results are good, we’ll increase investment.”
“For channel marketing, given GOG’s nature of data synchronization between PC and mobile games, we’re considering shifting the focus of promotion slightly toward mobile games, since IOI doesn’t have a mobile version, which is our biggest advantage.”
After finishing, Ye Zhizhou silently added in his heart: We suffered greatly in this aspect before…
After listening, Pei Qian was silent for a moment before asking: “So, what’s the specific budget amount?”
Ye Zhizhou cleared his throat and said somewhat hesitantly: “For these… It’s 5 million dollars.”
Pei Qian frowned slightly.
5 million dollars?
And they might not even be able to spend it all in a week?
At this rate, burning through 70 million dollars would take until the year of the monkey!
Would he even be able to lose money in this cycle?
Don’t mess with me!
Pei Qian gently tapped the table twice: “Too slow. Keep just a necessary amount for operating costs, make a budget for the rest, and spend it all within about a month!”
Ye Zhizhou was shocked: “Mr. Pei, that doesn’t seem right!”
Currently, GOG may not match overseas players’ tastes, and we’re not certain which promotional approach works best. With so much money all at once, I don’t know where to spend it…”
Don’t know where to spend it?
Looking at Ye Zhizhou’s inexperienced demeanor, Pei Qian knew he had to help him out.
No wonder most subordinates, when given such a large sum of money, wouldn’t dare make decisions for their boss.
He had to personally step in.
Pei Qian thought for a moment: “Do it this way, follow my method for spending.”
“Does anyone know the quote for the billboards in Times Square?”
Everyone looked at each other in confusion, until Lin Wan finally spoke up: “Mr. Pei, Shenhua bought space there before. The quotes for the screens in Times Square vary greatly. The largest screen, with 300,000 daily foot traffic, costs 2.5 million per month… RMB.”
Pei Qian: “?”
Only 2.5 million, and in RMB?
That’s a bit too cheap.
Pei Qian thought for a moment: “Then, rent several, can we rent a whole street? Let’s spend about 20 million dollars on that.”
“Now that we’ve covered Times Square, shouldn’t we symbolically cover other squares too? Let’s add up to 100 million dollars.”
“We’ve covered above ground, shouldn’t we also cover underground? Various countries must have plenty of subways and buses. Let’s spend another 100 million dollars buying some subway, bus, and station advertising spaces.”
“Let’s buy some online ads too, another 50 million dollars.”
“How can we rely just on streamers for promotion? For this kind of thing, we need clubs! Let’s directly sponsor those established foreign clubs, 1 million dollars per club, sponsoring ten first!”
“Then, let’s make sure that the IOI clubs’ uniforms also have GOG’s logo printed on them. When they stream IOI, they must turn on cameras, and incidentally advertise for GOG!”
“Since we’re sponsoring them, have these clubs also establish GOG divisions. That’s not too much, is it?”
“Then, set aside 50 million dollars, we’ll organize a new global invitational tournament. This time we’ll invite the world’s top clubs to compete. Besides the tournament organization costs, the rest will all be distributed as prize money!”
“There’s still more than 200 million dollars left…”
It had to be said, this sum was truly enormous. Even the typically lavish (with system funds) Pei Qian couldn’t think of where else to spend it at the moment.
He looked at everyone, hoping to get some hints, but everyone was stunned by Mr. Pei’s generosity, and no one dared to speak up.
Pei Qian thought for a moment, realizing it was time to reverse-engineer everyone’s brain-supplementing effect.
“The rest of this money is left for you as a small test.”
“There’s still one most important directions for the current promotion plan that hasn’t been completed. Think carefully about what it is, and then complete this plan.”
Ye Zhizhou quickly took notes and nodded hurriedly: “Yes, Mr. Pei, understood!”
Although he wasn’t clear about what exactly Mr. Pei’s “small test” was, since it was a test, he couldn’t ask more and had to figure it out himself.
After recording everything, everyone felt relieved.
It had to be said, this sum was indeed too large, making everyone hesitant to spend it. They were afraid of losing money no matter where they spent it.
It was Mr. Pei who had the boldness. The problem that had troubled everyone for a long time was easily solved!
Although they felt the numbers were a bit rough, these were just macro-level issues, and the details could be worked out gradually.
Having established the spending plan, Pei Qian felt relieved and asked: “Does anyone have anything else to say?”
Lin Wan spoke up: “Yes, Mr. Pei.”
“As far as I know, Eric’s first wave of promotion strategies has failed.”
Pei Qian looked confused: “Who is Eric? What promotion strategies? How did they fail?”
Lin Wan felt a bit helpless, thinking that Eric had truly overestimated his position in Mr. Pei’s mind. Mr. Pei didn’t even remember his name…
“He’s the head of the Greater China region that Dayak Group parachuted into Finger Company, the person who’s actually formulating IOI’s domestic server promotion strategies and directly competing with us.”
“Oh…” Pei Qian felt like he had some impression, “How long have they been in charge of IOI’s domestic server, and they’re already failing so efficiently?”
Lin Wan couldn’t help but smile: “Yes, Mr. Pei.”
“The first thing Eric did after taking over IOI’s domestic server was to look for chain internet cafes to seek cooperation, because this tactic had once had an immediate effect when promoting in South Korea, with significant results.”
“However, most internet cafes weren’t interested in this; after all, these were tactics we’d already used up.”
“Even if some internet cafes accepted, not many players would play IOI because of the small amount of discounted internet fees.”
Lin Wan’s lips curled into a slightly unkind smile because Dayak’s current predicament was the same as Shangyang Games’ previous experience, a perfect replay of history.
Pei Qian was a bit disappointed: “Just that? Suggest that he intensify efforts, preferably engaging in more price wars. How can they expect to attract users without being willing to spend more money?”
Ye Zhizhou said, “He’s probably just entered the domestic market and is unfamiliar with the situation, wanting to test the waters first. After all, East Asian markets share some similarities, so he might think that copying South Korea’s experience could be useful.”
Pei Qian chuckled.
Testing the waters?
Hmm, after testing, you’ll find that all paths are blocked, because Shangyang Games has already tried every trick in the book…
“Alright, let’s disperse.”
Pei Qian stood up, preparing to leave.
Just as he reached the door, his phone vibrated.
Taking it out for a look, it was a picture sent by Zhang Yuan. Although he couldn’t see the details, the number 2 million was particularly eye-catching.
Zhang Yuan: “Mr. Pei! DGE Club finally has its first income! Congratulations!”
Pei Qian was stunned. He opened the picture again to look carefully, and was instantly thunderstruck, his entire body freezing up, almost cursing out loud.
“Even a club that can’t compete in tournaments gets sponsors?”
“Are they insane?!”