August 19th, Friday.
Pei Qian arrived at the Shangyang Games to monitor the progress of spending money.
Other matters could wait, but spending money couldn’t.
It was impossible to spend such a large sum all at once. For example, organizing competitions required time to determine schedules, secure venues, send invitations to various clubs, and have them apply for visas in advance.
If things weren’t handled quickly enough and some money remained unspent before settlement, that would be very awkward.
Two weeks had passed since finalizing the spending plan, and much of the work should have progressed significantly. It was time to check in.
In the conference room, everyone from Shangyang Games had arrived.
Compared to the last meeting, everyone’s expressions were much more relaxed.
When Mr. Pei made a move, it gave everyone the feeling that “things are secure” and everything was developing in a better direction!
Lin Wan organized her materials and began reporting on recent work.
“First, let me talk about the current situation with the domestic server.”
“Although our focus for the upcoming period will be on the global server, I’m still monitoring the domestic server situation because it’s GOG’s foundation and cannot be compromised.”
“It’s worth mentioning that Eric’s second offensive has also failed.”
Hmm?
Pei Qian felt somewhat confused.
This time he remembered who Eric was—the executive who had been parachuted in to manage IOI’s domestic server.
But the second offensive had failed?
Was it that efficient?
Pei Qian didn’t even know when the second offensive had begun…
It was a bit embarrassing that news of victory reached Mr. Pei’s ears even before news of the war starting, which was quite absurd.
Lin Wan continued: “After the initial failure of the ground promotion strategy, Eric switched to a different approach, focusing on the game’s peripheral industries.”
“He approached several domestic streaming platforms, famous streamers, and some established esports clubs, hoping to collaborate and have them promote IOI. The results were predictable—just like before, they either politely declined or deflected.”
“All I can say is that so far, GOG has formed a solid front in the domestic market. While maintaining an ultra-high market share, internet cafes, streaming platforms, clubs, and so on have all been forged into a solid bloc with enormous shared interests with GOG.”
“Moreover, these shared interests include not just immediate short-term benefits but also long-term future benefits. Internet cafes, streaming platforms, and clubs all believe IOI has no chance of winning, so from a long-term perspective, it’s more appropriate to stand with GOG.”
“Although Eric could offer some immediate short-term benefits, he couldn’t guarantee long-term benefits because he couldn’t instill enough confidence in these parties.”
“And confidence is the most crucial factor.”
“Eric even approached several clubs wanting to sponsor them to establish IOI divisions, but was rejected. On one hand, the price Eric offered wasn’t high enough; on the other hand, these clubs feared incurring our displeasure and losing their chance at securing spots in the upcoming World Invitational.”
Pei Qian silently lamented how pitiful Eric was.
Originally full of ambition to make big moves in the domestic server and fight GOG to the death, he was immediately stopped at the first step, unable even to spend money.
Of course, if Eric were truly willing to spend big money, he could certainly do so. Ultimately, the price he offered wasn’t enough.
Internet cafes, clubs, and streaming platforms considered everything and weren’t tempted, naturally shutting the door on him.
Pei Qian couldn’t help but marvel: this Eric was quite remarkable!
Two offensives couldn’t even begin the fight; he couldn’t even recruit troops and was still stuck at the speech stage before raising the banner of rebellion.
It was somewhat enviable.
Wang Xiaobin clicked his tongue in wonder: “This Eric is something. When he first came to China, he was so arrogant and overbearing, but after all that fuss, is this all he’s got?”
Ye Zhizhou also said: “Although it might seem a bit unkind to say, I want to know what his expression looks like now.”
Lin Wan smiled: “To be honest, these things aren’t entirely his responsibility.”
“After all, Eric is just the head of IOI’s domestic server operations. He has to request money from the Dayark Group and Finger Company and can’t spend it freely.”
“If he could spend money without limits, as long as the price was high enough, someone would eventually defect. But the problem is, he can’t.”
“Although the Dayark Group is wealthy, that doesn’t contradict the fact that they’re very stingy.”
“The Dayark Group is all about the money. When they spend, they must see tangible returns. Like when they spent a sum we could never afford to acquire Finger Company, it was because they had already seen IOI’s success overseas and believed that in the future, Finger Company would create value for them that exceeded the acquisition price.”
“But it’s difficult for Eric to convince Dayark Group’s top management to spend an excessive, enormous amount on domestic server promotion. Moreover, even if the money is spent, it might not be effective, and then Eric would take the blame. He doesn’t dare take that risk.”
“There’s also a rumor that can serve as evidence.”
“Reportedly, Finger Company had been preparing to organize an international competition for IOI for some time, but with a limited budget of only $100,000.”
“The Dayark Group’s acquisition happened midway, so the matter was temporarily shelved.”
“By the time Finger Company revisited the idea, we had already announced our Global Invitational, directly increasing the prize pool several dozen times, with the champion’s prize alone reaching one million dollars!”
“For Finger Company, this was awkward.”
“On a global scale, GOG was launching an offensive against IOI. If they also held a competition but with a prize pool of only $100,000, it would be too embarrassing—better not to hold it at all.”
“To avoid embarrassment, their prize pool would need to be at least close to ours.”
“But internally, the Dayark Group hadn’t reached a consensus on this because the previous acquisition had already consumed a large amount of cash flow from Dayark Group’s media company. Many executives were reluctant to allocate several million dollars for competition organization in such a short time, believing it wasn’t cost-effective.”
“It’s not that they don’t have the money; they’re just unwilling to spend it.”
“So, the matter could only be shelved.”
Pei Qian nodded silently. He had initially thought Eric was talented, but now he realized he wasn’t.
The main reason Eric was being trounced in the domestic server was due to the true money managers at Dayark.
Pei Qian’s money power wasn’t about how much money he had, but how much he dared to spend.
If I have 100 yuan and you have 1,000 yuan, you seem to have ten times more than I. But if I spend all 100 without regret while you carefully consider spending just 20, then in terms of money power, I’m still slightly stronger.
Pei Qian quickly lost interest in Eric’s situation.
Sigh, I had hoped he could put some pressure on GOG domestically, giving me a legitimate reason to spend more money and earn less.
Those expectations were in vain.
Pei Qian felt somewhat disappointed.
Lin Wan continued: “However, his third offensive has already begun.”
“From his previous two attempts, he seems to have realized that GOG’s foundation is extremely solid. Internet cafes, streaming platforms, and clubs are all deeply bound to us.”
“GOG’s related industries have become an impenetrable fortress—needles can’t pierce it, water can’t seep through—leaving him helpless.”
“So, Eric seems to be changing his approach, trying to attract players from other types of games and get those who have never played GOG to try IOI. He appears to be planning to collaborate with third-party vendors like beverage companies, men’s skincare products, mouse manufacturers, gaming chairs, and so on, shifting his focus to securing third parties.”
“Mr. Pei, do you think we need to follow suit?”
Pei Qian’s eyes brightened as he listened.
Eric was pretty good! Even in such a passive situation, he found a breakthrough?
Collaborating with third-party manufacturers? Why hadn’t we thought of that before?
Very good, Eric has provided me with a new way to spend money!
Thank him!
Pei Qian nodded: “Necessary, necessary!”
“Keep a close eye on him. Whichever company Eric collaborates with, we’ll also collaborate with them. No matter what he chooses, we’ll follow immediately!”
“No need to think too hard, just spend money, how simple!”
Everyone couldn’t help but display sympathetic expressions.
Back when Shangyang Games was promoting IOI’s domestic server, Tenda Games had done exactly this.
No matter what promotional method IOI’s domestic server team devised, GOG’s team would mindlessly follow!
A single “piggyback” technique had driven the people at Shangyang Games crazy.
Since GOG’s user base in China already crushed IOI’s, simply following mindlessly left IOI completely helpless.
At the same time, everyone became more certain that Tenda Games had learned this from Mr. Pei.
This bullying technique was identical!
All they could do now was observe from a distance and silently mourn for Eric.
Pei Qian, meanwhile, was immersed in the joy of finding new ways to spend money and didn’t care about Eric’s fate.
“Good, that’s settled then. Let’s continue,” Pei Qian waved his hand for the meeting to proceed.
Lin Wan continued: “GOG’s overseas promotion has also achieved good results.”
“Mr. Pei, with the remaining twenty-something million dollars, we acquired a comics company in the United States called Hurricane Comics, which holds less than 5% market share. We’ve decided to use its biggest IP, Multi-faced Man, as the flagship hero for promotion.”
“After the groundwork and warm-up over the past period, advertisements featuring Multi-faced Man and GOG have been fully deployed across Times Square, subways, bus stations, and major websites. The number of users on GOG’s overseas server is rapidly growing every day.”
“GOG’s conscientious pricing has been well-received among overseas players, and heroes with interesting mechanics like Wind Calligrapher Ruan and Mortis have gained the affection of overseas players.”
“Tenda Games has now completed the development of Multi-faced Man, which will go live this weekend and should trigger another surge in traffic!”
Pei Qian frowned slightly: “Wait, the Hurricane Comics company you just mentioned… they haven’t happened to make a movie called Iron Man, have they?”
Lin Wan shook her head in confusion: “Iron Man? What’s that? Hurricane Comics doesn’t have any film production capabilities. They were on the verge of bankruptcy, otherwise, they wouldn’t have sold for just over twenty million dollars.”
Pei Qian felt relieved.
Yes, I thought so. I can’t be that unlucky every time.
Not every random company I buy may turn out to be severely undervalued. That would be too unscientific.
Previously, he had been worrying about how to spend those twenty-something million dollars, but now it had been spent smoothly, so he could relax.
And buying a comic company on the verge of bankruptcy with less than 5% market share wouldn’t directly crush IOI overseas, which was good.
The offense shouldn’t be too aggressive. Let GOG gradually erode IOI’s market share, so the Dayark Group would resist, allowing GOG to continue legitimately spending money on promotion.
You expand your market share; I steal your market share. This cycle would create perpetual motion.
Then GOG and IOI could continue playing happily in the overseas market, everyone cheerfully burning money together. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
Dayark, you bought my IOI domestic server money-burning tree, preventing me from mindlessly burning money. Well, there’s no choice but to make you my new money-burning tree!