Pei Qian coughed silently. "The level of housing agencies was uneven. Cooperating with them would be huge damage to our reputation. What was more, we would be having a rental model. It is not appropriate for us to go on any old website.
"Anyway, let's not jump the gun to publicity. Our product is not good enough yet.
"A house is for people to live in. The environmentally-friendly standards had to be strictly adhered to! This house has just been renovated. There must be formaldehyde in it so the best thing is to let it air for a month or two."
Liang Qingfan hesitated for a while and said. "Uh... Boss Pei, this house has been renovated based on all your requirements, using the most environmentally-friendly materials. Formaldehyde level in the house has reached national safety standards within which you can move in."
"Uh? Is that right?" Pei Qian could not tell if he was losing or earning.
Renovating with environmentally-friendly materials could cost a little more, but they could move in faster while general materials were cheaper, but it would take a long time to ventilate after the renovation. The later someone rented out, the more rent they would lose.
However, Pei Qian thought about it and chose the former. The health of his clients was the most important.
Customers might have lined up to give Boss Pei money and make it unbearable for him, but Boss Pei was always a magnanimous person. He would not bear any grudges.
Pei Qian coughed lightly. "It has to be aired even if it has reached the standards! We have to be strict with ourselves. It is not enough to meet national standards.
"Anyway, let it air for at least a month.
"You don't need to worry about publicity. You've worked hard, have a good rest."
Liang Qingfan nodded. "Okay, Boss Pei."
...
...
August 5th, Friday...
At Shang Yang Games...
Lin Wan was in the office, seriously thinking about related promotional activities for the GOG world server.
Boss Pei gave them 500 million in one shot. It was indeed lavish, but it also brought a lot of pressure to everyone in the Shang Yang Games. This money was not difficult to spend. The key was how to spend it meaningfully.
It would be an international joke if this 500 million were to be used without making any ripples. Shang Yang Games would be the laughingstock of the world.
Therefore, shortly after they were done with the domestic server of IOI, Shang Yang Games entered a tense working state again.
Knock, knock.
A knock came from outside the office. Ye Zhizhou pushed it open. "Director Lin, the person-in-charge of domestic affairs from Finger Games wants to meet with you."
Lin Wan was taken aback. "With me?"
Ye Zhizhou nodded. "Yes, he originally wanted to meet with Boss Pei but was denied mercilessly..."
Lin Wan found it funny.
Who are you to meet Boss Pei? I don't even have to meet you either.
"What is this in-charge's background?" Lin Wan asked.
Ye Zhizhou answered truthfully, "I did a bit of investigation. This person seems to be rather big. He wasn't the original person-in-charge of China from Finger Games but was airdropped in recently. His name is Eric and was a high-level executive in the media department of Dayak Corporation."
Lin Wan was stunned. No wonder this Eric thought he could meet Boss Pei. From a logical standpoint, he was indeed qualified to meet Boss Pei.
A pity that Boss Pei would never fall for this trick.
Finger Games had now become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dayak Corporation. Dayak Corporation loved to interfere with everything. Airdropping a high-level executive to be in charge of the IOI domestic server was something they were capable of.
"Finger Games made this move very rapidly. They were probably preparing for it since a long time ago," Lin Wan said with emotion.
Ye Zhizhou nodded. "That's right. Taking back the operating rights of the IOI domestic server should be something that the executives of Finger Games and Dayak Corporation both wanted.
"Finger Games had always had a very strong desire to expand. They sold themselves to Dayak Corporation so that they could obtain more funds for expansion and to promote IOI faster to the world.
"They obviously also attach great importance to the domestic market. They feel IOI is struggling in the domestic market because we are not promoting hard enough and had been slammed by GOG. They even suspected that Tengda bought their shares to play tricks and to support GOG.
"Therefore, Finger Games had been planning to take over their IOI domestic server. Dayak's privatization offer was just a smooth move that promoted their common interest. Dayak sent a high-level executive to set it going after it was settled.
"As to why this Eric wants to meet Boss Pei and you... I have no idea."
Lin Wan was silent for a short while. "Alright, I'll go and meet him.
"Boss Pei will definitely not meet him; it would be undermining his position. However, I can meet him. Knowing ourselves and the enemy is the only way to survive. We might be able to obtain some useful information since we are going up against them."
...
Lin Wan came to a cafe in Jingzhou City to meet this Eric.
He had a standard westerner face and looked like he was in his forties. His figure was well-maintained, but his hairline was worrying. The length of his beard exceeded the hair on the top of his head. Fortunately, the shape of his beard had been carefully taken care of.
Both of them exchanged pleasantries with both knowing that they were enemies.
What surprised Lin Wan was that Eric's Mandarin was rather fluent. He only had a little accent.
Eric sipped on his coffee and looked at his watch casually. "My plane will be leaving at five in the afternoon so we have plenty of time."
Lin Wan smiled slightly. She could see that Eric was using the watch that cost hundreds of thousands, some specific movements and his expression in hopes to overwhelm her with his aura. However, she was completely unmoved.
I don't even bother about Shenhua Corporation; you are just an executive in the media department of Dayak Corporation. How dare you act up with me.
Lin Wan grinned. "It doesn't matter if you miss the plane. I can consider lending you my family's private plane."
Eric's hand holding the coffee cup obviously stiffened. He was obviously confused; shouldn't there be a basis for showing off?
Tengda was just a small company in Jingzhou, and you are just a person-in-charge of one of the business departments. Where would your private jet come from?
Are people so dishonest nowadays?
He might be speechless, but Eric knew he had to keep his posture. There was no need to go up against a little girl in her twenties. He, therefore, decided to skip over that topic to talk business.
"Alright, Miss Lin, it seems like we both know very well what we are here for. I deliberately came to Jingzhou from Shanghai to know my opponent. I'm sure Miss Lin has the same thinking as me.
"Obviously, Boss Pei does not want to meet me in person probably because he wants to hide his own intentions as much as possible. He sent you here to obtain information about me.
"Interesting street-smart guy but meaningless."
Lin Wan's face sank. "You know nothing about Boss Pei, and it would be very stupid to make such baseless guesses."
Eric was not angry. He took a sip of the coffee casually and said, "How do you know that it is an unfounded guess? This is the first time I set foot in Jingzhou, but I've gained enough knowledge in a few short hours."
"Then, what did you gain on this trip to Jingzhou, Mr. Eric?" Lin Wan replied noncommittally.
Eric replied slowly and confidently, "I confirmed some of my thoughts, such as the truth about the competition between GOG and IOI.
"I was very surprised when I learned that IOI's original operations were in Jingzhou. That did not make any sense. The operation should be in Shanghai no matter what.
"Later, I learned some insider information which confirmed my suspicions.
"I have to say that Tengda has great luck. It seized the opportunity when IOI was still unknown, bought the shares of Finger Games at a very low price, and obtained the operating rights for the domestic server.
"However, you are too greedy. You are doing this only to better promote GOG domestically.
"Why is it that IOI is enjoying huge success internationally except in China? Obviously, it was not a fair fight from the start. It is all a show between you sister companies!
"Why are the main promotional activities and competitions all in Jingzhou? That is obviously because Tengda has a stronger influence in Jingzhou. You can change the results of the game and choose the winner by default.
"Therefore, we are very aware that IOI will never be promoted in this country if we continue to leave the domestic operation rights to Tengda. That is intolerable to use because there are a huge number of players in China; we cannot give it up.
"You saw this opportunity and profited from it ruthlessly. However, it is nothing to Dayak. The potential profit that IOI can make in China is far more than tens of millions of US dollars; it would be on the scale of billions of US dollars!"
"Mr. Eric, can you be so sure that IOI can defeat GOG to get a piece of the domestic market?" Lin Wan asked after listening in silence.
Chapter 606: Sponsorship Fees
Eric was amused. "Why wouldn't I be sure? IOI is formidable in the rest of the world. It only failed in China because it was subject to unfair gaming regulations!
"You produced the athletes, you produced the judges, and you took IOI as GOG's stepping stone. IOI didn't fail because there's anything wrong with it. Of course, I would have complete confidence in it!"
Lin Wan nodded and smiled. "Alright, I wish you all the best, then."
Obviously, Eric had not realized the difference between IOI and GOG's quality. He was merely blaming IOI's failure on Tengda's alleged underhanded tricks.
Lin Wan also clearly wanted Eric to hold on to that view.
Eric took a sip of his coffee. "I wish you all the best as well, Miss Lin. I wonder if everyone in your department lost their jobs after losing IOI's management rights. I guess not. After all, this was all a part of Tengda Corporation's plan. You were probably given a brand-new project to work on.
"It's a pity that Tengda Corporation didn't treasure the opportunity to work on a rare S-Grade game like IOI, which would probably only come across once every ten years. You won't get another chance."
Lin Wan smirked and stood up.
"Mr. Eric, you don't have to worry about that. We already have a new job to do. GOG's international servers are going to be opened soon. Guess how much we have in our marketing funds.
"Seventy million US dollars! What a coincidence!" Lin Wan purposely exclaimed sarcastically.
The hand Eric was using to hold his coffee cup paused in midair.
What was the meaning of this? Are they going global without any warning?
What's more, they're... using our money to do that?
...
...
August 6th, Saturday...
At DGE Esports Club...
Huang Wang just finished setting up his camera, which had only just arrived.
Old Zhou dissed him. "I wonder who it was who said he would not reveal his face back then."
Huang Wang sounded helpless as he responded, "I don't have a choice. I don't know why people keep asking me to switch on my webcam every single day. What's there to see?
"I'm a man. There's no cleavage to reveal, unlike female live-streamers... er, okay, I do have cleavage, but no one would really want to see that!
"Yet, the requests for me to switch on my webcam are incessant, and there have been more and more of them recently. Someone even insists every day that I'm only refusing to switch my webcam on because I'm ugly. How can I tolerate that?!"
Old Zhou laughed, amused that netizens had so many tricks up their sleeves these days. Live-streamers were practically being controlled by them.
Huang Wang adjusted his camera and started live-streaming as usual. The moment Huang Wang started live-streaming, a huge number of viewers entered the room.
Huang Wang won a lot of fans over from his game with Pang Ling. After he set up his own account, many fans started following him in waves.
The competition had attracted many gamers over to GOG, who then became fans of Pang Ling... and then became fans of Huang Wang.
What's more, Huang Wang was good at live-streaming. Each time he played with Pang Ling, they joked and laughed as they slaughtered everyone else in the game. Huang Wang's sharp tongue also worked nonstop, perfectly suiting his viewers' taste.
After all, many viewers thought that speaking more equated to having the gift of the gab. No matter what the live-streamer said, they would be happy as long as they could hear something.
As Huang Wang's live-streams became increasingly popular, the platform started offering various recommendations of it, which caused the number of fans to keep increasing in return.
When viewers first entered his live-stream, they had talked about anything and everything under the sun. Yet, a few days later, all the bullet screen comments revolved around something else.
"???"
"Host, who are you?"
"Why is there a strong and handsome man seated there? Where did the host go?"
"Holy sh*t. This is what the host looks like? Are you sure you weren't a boxer before you started playing esports? My mind is blown!"
"The host is so good at battling, in every sense of the word!"
"Quickly, strike a pose!"
"Is this the live-streamer that chatters incessantly? He looks so different from what I imagined! I thought that the live-streamer would be a scrawny monkey!"
Huang Wang felt upset reading all the comments.
Why do you think I used to be a boxer before I started playing esports? You're even asking me to strike a pose?
What are you taking me for?
All of a sudden, a huge flaming arrow shot across the live-stream room.
Huang Wang's eyes lit up, and he quickly said, "Thank you for the flaming arrow—'Please stream naked, Host'!"
He felt awkward.
Having no choice, Huang Wang said, "I can't stream naked, but how about this? I'll wear a singlet..."
He could ignore all his viewers' requests, but he had to satisfy those of his sponsors. Huang Wang was a principled man. One of his principles was never to fight against money.
Zhang Yuan quietly walked past and could not help but smile.
The players could not take part in professional competitions, and so they spent all their time either training or enduring extra training. Their lives were difficult enough as it is, and so he thought that it was a good thing for them to livestream and entertain themselves once in a while.
In any case, as long as they could continue training intensely each day and not get distracted by live-streaming, it would all be fine.
Zhang Yuan returned to his room and checked the mock competition schedule with other clubs.
After the previous competition, GOG became extremely popular in the country. Various clubs started investing resources into a GOG team. As a result, all of those teams had requested mock competitions with DGE!
After all, everyone knew that both of DGE's teams represented the peak of GOG playing in the country and even the whole world. GOG didn't have international servers yet.
Mock competitions would be most effective if one played against the best of the best, so that they could see just how far off they were from the top-tier team.
Still, DGE only had two teams. It would be too much to ask for them to play in mock competitions against more than ten other clubs.
What's more, other clubs' standards were all kinds of awful now. Some gamers from newly-established or newly-modified clubs were so bad that they would probably be defeated in the in-game 'professional rounds'. DGE's teams would just be torturing them during the mock competitions that it would be meaningless to take part.
For the DGE Club's two teams to improve, they had to keep playing against each other. Yet, they could not turn down all requests for mock competitions from external teams. Otherwise, working behind closed doors might cause them to become too complacent, to the point that they would be oblivious when others overtake them.
Thus, after a lot of consideration, Zhang Yuan decided to take the lead and come up with a training schedule for all the clubs. Everyone would train together, and they would not have to fight.
That way, DGE would have time for both of its teams to play against each other and not risk deteriorating by spending too much time messing around with teams that had just formed a while ago.
After thinking about the various clubs' skills and timings for two hours or so, Zhang Yuan finally came up with a mock competition training schedule that incorporated all the teams.
Zhang Yuan sent the training schedule to the people in charge of the other clubs so that they could plan their own training around it.
Of course, the people in charge of those other clubs did not have any opinions. They could not ask for anything better than for DGE, the strongest and most formidable club, to take the lead and come up with an organized mock competition schedule for all the teams in the country.
Just as Zhang Yuan closed his laptop, his cell phone rang. He picked it up and saw an unknown number.
"Hello?"
A male voice sounded at the other end of the line. "Hello, is this DGE Club? I am the Vice President of Waiwai Live-Streaming Platform, Peng Bin. I want to sign an athlete from your club, Huang Wang. I wonder if we can negotiate his terms."
Zhang Yuan was stunned.
Huang Wang had only started live-streaming a few days ago, but Waiwai had already set their sights on him? Yet, on further thought, it seemed to make sense. All the live-streaming platforms were fighting as hard as they could now.
Live-streamers of GOG, in particular, were being snatched up with increasingly high sign-on fees.
Huang Wang was well-skilled and was pushed onto the limelight by Pang Ling. In addition, his appearance and figure were potential hot topics for discussion. Clearly, he was an excellent pick for live-streaming platforms.
Zhang Yuan pondered for a moment and said, "You have to guarantee one thing. Huang Wang's original training schedule cannot be affected. He can only livestream for less than 36 hours every month.
"If you can't accept that, any amount of sign-on fees you offer would not suffice."
At the other end of the line, Peng Bin paused. "We can accept that. However, we have a tiny request. We hope you would allow us to give him the title of 'DGE Club's Athlete'.
"Of course, we will also give your club a token of appreciation.
"We're going to pay Huang Wang two million yuan a year, and the agreement can be a tripartite one. The club would take a standard portion as a gift. On top of that, Waiwai Live-Streaming Platform hopes to pay two million yuan a year to become a sponsor of DGE Club."
Zhang Yuan thought about it for a moment. "We won't take any portion of the money meant for Huang Wang. Give it all to him. As for the sponsorship... Boss Peng, do you know that two teams cannot take part in any official competitions?"
Peng Bin smiled naturally. "I know. We heard that from the H4 Club.
"However, as long as your club is more well-known than any other, why does it matter whether you can take part in official competitions or not?"
Chapter 607: Rent a Street in Times Square!
Zhang Yuan remained silent for a while, thinking about whether he had a good reason to reject Peng Bin or not.
Peng Bin's offer was very sincere.
It looked like the live-streaming industry was on the rise at the moment. Once various investors saw the investment opportunity, they headed straight for it. Live-stream platforms were now competing at full force to see who could afford to burn the most money.
Waiwai Live-Streaming Platform was one of the first few live-streaming platforms. Of course, it had much more spending power and could afford to be much more generous in this aspect.
Two million yuan a year already sounded like such a high price. After all, how many people working in higher management could earn two million yuan a year?
As for the sky-high figures that top live-streamers were raking in, there were two explanations: on one hand, the prices were pushed higher and higher as more and more investors entered the industry; on the other hand, there was a huge percentage of the price towards showing off.
Someone like Huang Wang would probably never have thought that he, a young internet addict who had been binging on instant noodles just a year ago, would land such a huge contract.
Of course, Peng Bin was only willing to offer such a price to one person—Huang Wang. There were three main reasons for this: his individual skills, his gift of the gab, and his image (muscles).
Peng Bin guessed that Huang Wang would be worth investing in because he was interesting and had a lot of potential. A live-streaming career would suit him.
Naturally, there were practical reasons for sponsoring DGE with two million yuan as well. Peng had already gathered some information about DGE from the H4 club. There were, again, three points that were of interest to him:
DGE was the top E-Sports Club in the country at the moment...
DGE was taking the lead and planning mock competitions between all the other clubs...
DGE was being nurtured at a cost to Tengda, and the club's manager was once Boss Pei's trusted right-hand man.
Would he have to worry about a club like that having insufficient exposure? If they wouldn't be exposed in the future, why would Tengda be spending so much money nurturing it?
After the GOG Competition, Peng Bin had reason to believe that Tengda had set up the DGE Club so early to achieve a catfishing effect!
The DGE Club had intensely toured the various teams before GOG's competition, thereby greatly improving all the other teams' standards and pushing them towards regularization.
Peng Bin would never believe that this was a mere pleasant surprise. Obviously, DGE was an important part of Tengda's plan to market GOG!
For all he knew, the DGE Club might cause a large-scale change in the world of esports in the future and become an example for all the other clubs to follow.
Viewers were inclined to worship the strong. As long as the DGE Club maintained its level of skill, they would always stand a chance to attain glory.
What's more, if the two million yuan could put Waiwai in Tengda's good books, why would they hold back?
As for Zhang Yuan, he was equally happy to accept the money.
He hoped that the team members would be able to stand out in the crowd, enjoy more attention, and live a better life as well. Thus, he had decided that the club would not take a cent of the money that Waiwai wanted to pay to Huang Wang.
At the same time, why would the DGE Club reject others' offer of money?
Two million yuan was not much, but it was definitely not little either. Other clubs would kill to get such an opportunity.
Any club would only earn income from a couple of avenues: investments and advertising sponsorships, competitions, live-streaming platform's sign-on fees, team uniforms, and peripherals, transfer fees for members, and so on.
Most clubs don't make a profit, but that's only because they couldn't and not because they didn't want to.
DGE could forget about winning money from competitions, uniforms, or peripherals. If it refused to accept investments or advertising as well, it would become a charitable organization that purely spent money, wouldn't it? That definitely wouldn't do.
He would symbolically take the two million yuan for now. To Boss Pei, that sum wouldn't matter much. Still, Zhang Yuan could send him a message: the DGE Club had the power to earn money, and so Boss Pei did not have to worry about it!
The more Zhang Yuan thought about it, the more right it felt. At once, he agreed to Peng Bin's offer, and they set a time to sign the contract.
...
...
August 8th, Monday...
Pei Qian arrived at Shang Yang Games in the morning. He was very conscientious about GOG's international servers.
Of course, he did not care how much of the global market GOG would dominate in the end. Instead, he was more concerned about how the money was being spent. As long as the company hadn't spent all seventy million yuan, Pei Qian would not be able to sleep well.
Everyone soon arrived in the conference room. They could all tell that GOG's international servers meant a lot to Boss Pei. So it felt like a heavy burden on their shoulders.
Ye Zhizhou began to report updates on GOG's international servers.
"Boss Pei, GOG's English translation is more or less complete now. We'll be releasing it in the Western countries soon. As for the publicity strategy, we're mainly looking in three directions: online advertising, live-streaming, and promotional channels.
"We'll only be testing the waters with this strategy. After all, we don't understand the overseas market well enough. So, we have to try things out first. If the effects are good, we can invest more.
"For the channel promotion, we're thinking of placing emphasis on those who like playing mobile games, given that GOG's client and mobile data are linked. After all, IOI doesn't have a mobile version, and so this would be greatly advantageous to us."
Ye Zhizhou finished speaking, but he added in his heart: "That was where we lost out the most back then..."
When Pei Qian heard this, he remained quiet for a while. Then, he said, "So... how much would you spend in total?"
Ye Zhizhou cleared his throat and nervously said, "That would cost... fifty million US dollars."
Pei Qian frowned. Fifty million US dollars?
It seemed that they were unlikely to be able to finish spending all that money within this cycle, at that. At the rate that they were going, how long would it take for them to finish spending all seventy million US dollars?
I wouldn't be able to incur a loss during this cycle, would I?
Don't mess with me!
Pei Qian gently patted the table twice. "That's dragging things out too long. Leave a bit of money for our daily operations, and then make plans to spend the rest of it. Make sure it's all gone within the month!"
Ye Zhizhou was shocked. "Boss Pei, that doesn't sound like a good idea, does it?
"GOG might not suit the foreign players' taste. We're not sure if the publicity strategy would even work out well. Even if we want to spend that much at one go, I wouldn't know how to..."
You wouldn't know how to?
Looking at Ye Zhizhou's inexperienced manner, Pei Qian knew that he had to give him a hand. It was no surprise. Most employees would not dare to make any decisions on behalf of the boss when it concerned that much money.
It was time for Pei Qian to step up.
He pondered for a moment and said, "How about this? Spend the money according to my plan. Does anyone know how much the big screens at Times Square cost?"
Everyone exchanged confused looks. At last, Lin Wan spoke. "Boss Pei, Shenhua bought it before. The big screens vary greatly in cost. The biggest one has exposure to about three hundred thousand people each day. It would cost 2.5 million... RMB monthly."
Pei Qian: "?"
Just 2.5 million? RMB, at that? That was ridiculously cheap.
Pei Qian thought for a moment and said, "Then, rent a couple more of them. Can we take an entire street? Just spend two million US dollars on it.
"In that case, should we rent a few at other squares as well? How about this? Let's increase the budget to ten million US dollars.
"Since we're already renting screens in the sky, we should rent some underground as well, right? There are several subways in every country. Let's spend another ten million US dollars on advertising spaces in train stations, bus stations, and stop signs.
"Throw in another five million US dollars for a couple of online advertising spaces as well.
"Also, how can we just look for a couple of live-streamers to publicize the game for us? Of course, we have to depend on the clubs! Let's sponsor all the veteran clubs overseas with a sum of a million US dollars. We'll sponsor ten of them for now!
"Print GOG's logo on all those uniforms of the IOI teams as well. Make them switch on their webcams when streaming IOI, so that they can market GOG at the same time!
"Since we're sponsoring them, make those clubs set up a GOG team as well. That wouldn't be too much to ask, would it?
"Then, leave another five million US dollars to organize a global invitational competition. This time, we'll invite all the best clubs in the world. On top of the money required to organize the competition, the rest would be distributed as reward prizes!"
"That leaves us with twenty million US dollars..."
Pei Qian had to admit that it was an extremely large sum of money. Even Pei Qian, who often squanders (System Funds), could not think of where to spend it all.
He scanned everyone, hoping to get some suggestions as to what to do. Yet, they were all obviously stunned by his bold moves, so that no one dared to speak up.
Pei Qian thought for a while. It was the perfect opportunity to make good use of everyone's imaginations.
"I'll leave you to think about how to spend the rest of the money as a little test.
"There's still an important part of the publicity strategy that has not been completed yet. Have a good think about what it is, and then fill in the gaps in the plan."
Ye Zhizhou quickly made notes and nodded. "Alright, Boss Pei. I understand!"
Although he was not sure about what the little test at the end was meant to be, he knew he could not ask questions about it since it was a test. He had to figure it out on his own.
Once he took everything down, they all felt relieved.
They had to admit that the sum of money was too huge. Everyone felt paralyzed with fear that they would incur losses if they spent it wrongly.
At the end of the day, Boss Pei was the most courageous. He had so easily resolved the problem that everyone had been stumped by! Although the system design seemed messy, it was probably just a problem with the overall plan. They could iron out the details later.
Now that the plan to spend money was set, Pei Qian felt much more relaxed. He asked, "Does anyone have anything to say?"
Lin Wan said, "Yes, Boss Pei.
"Based on what I know, Eric's first wave of publicity strategies have more or less failed."
Pei Qian looked confused. "Who is Eric? What publicity? Why has it failed?"
Lin Wan looked frustrated. In her heart, she exclaimed that Eric had overestimated his own place in Boss Pei's eyes. In fact, Boss Pei did not even remember his name...
"He's the one whom Dayak Corporation parachuted into Finger Games to act as the person in charge of China. He's also the one tasked with marketing IOI's local server to directly compete with us."
"Oh..." Pei Qian seemed to have an impression of him. "How long has it been since they took over IOI's domestic server? How did they fail so quickly?"
Lin Wan could not help but laugh. "That's right, Boss Pei.
"The first thing that Eric did when he took over IOI's local server was to look for a chain of internet cafes to work with. That had brought about unprecedented results in South Korea earlier.
"However, most internet cafes were uninterested. After all, those are just leftover internet cafes.
"Even at those that agreed, gamers wouldn't play IOI just to save a bit on their bill."
The corners of Lin Wan's mouth turned upwards in an arrogant smile. Dayak Corporation was now suffering the exact same fate as Shang Yang had earlier. History was repeating itself.
Pei Qian looked disappointed. "That's all? Tell them to try a bit harder. It'll be best if we engage in a price war. How can they steal our players if they're so afraid to spend money?"
Ye Zhizhou said, "They're probably testing the waters and unfamiliar with the market because they just entered. After all, our market is similar to the East Asian market in some ways. That's probably why he thinks his experience in South Korea would be helpful."
Pei Qian sniggered.
Testing the waters? Hmm... after testing the waters, you'll learn which methods don't work. Shang Yang Games had already done everything that it could earlier...
"Alright, be dismissed."
Pei Qian stood up to leave. Just as he walked through the door, his cell phone vibrated.
He picked it up to take a look and realized that it was a photo from Zhang Yuan. It was blurry, but the '2,000,000' was particularly eye-catching.
Zhang Yuan: "Boss Pei! The DGE Club has finally earned its first paycheck! This is worth celebrating!"
Pei Qian was stunned. He tapped the image to take a closer look. He became paralyzed, as if he had just been struck by a bolt of lightning, and then held himself back from cussing.
Who the f*ck was willing to sponsor a club that could not even take part in competitions?!
Crazy!
Chapter 608: Three Sponsorships at Most
Pei Qian was speechless.
The sponsorship of two million yuan was not too much since Boss Pei has been sponsoring one million US dollars to foreign clubs.
However, the key point was that DGE was not a veteran club that had been in operations for a long time. There was no exposure since they could not enter competitions. Who would want to sponsor them for?
Could you recoup this money?
Pei Qian calmed down a little and clicked on the photo sent by Zhang Yuan. He glanced at the picture again and found the keywords above: Waiwai Live-Streaming Platform.
Why does a live-stream platform want to sponsor the DGE club? Could it be...?
Pei Qian suddenly felt that something was not good! Indeed, the DGE club could not play official competitions, but it did not mean they could not livestream!
The live-stream platform had its own exposure!
That was a very dangerous signal, he had to interfere!
Pei Qian knew very well that within a year, all kinds of domestic capital would enter this arena and live-stream platforms would spring up like bamboo shoots after a rain. The money burning war would begin.
The popularity of live-streamers would increase, many sky-high contracts would appear!
What if there were some talented live-streamers in the DGE club?
Pei Qian was a little grateful that Zhang Yuan exposed this to him early. There seemed to be room to rescue the situation. He quickly took his car to the DGE club.
...
Pei Qian carefully reviewed the contract after he came to the DGE club.
Zhang Yuan stood by the side and could not help but to think of reasons for the scene in front of him since Boss Pei looked very serious.
It seems like Boss Pei attaches great importance to the profitability of the DGE club. He rushed over as soon as he heard the news!
Moreover, he is looking at the contract very seriously. Is he worried if there were any traps in the contracts and wanted to check it again?
I did not take a cut from Huang Wang's live-stream contract. I wonder if Boss Pei will support my approach or not.
Pei Qian put down the contract after some time.
Zhang Yuan hurriedly tested the ground. "Boss Pei, I did not take any commission from Huang Wang's live-stream because..."
Pei Qian raised his hand. "Um, you did very well in this! Are the other players going to sign a live-stream contract as well?"
Zhang Yuan shook his head. "No, Waiwai Live-Streaming Platform signed with Huang Wang mainly because of his potential as a live-streamer. He knows his stuff, talks a lot, has a good figure and image.
"Most of our players are not able to do the second point and are not very good at analyzing the situation in the game. Therefore, there is not much commercial value in the view of live-streaming.
"Even if they were to sign a contract, it would not be at such a high value of two million yuan."
Pei Qian heaved a sigh of relief.
Lucky! Zhang Yuan's understanding of the Tengda spirit is still useful.
The two-million-yuan contract that Huang Wang signed had nothing to do with him since the club did not take a cut out of it.
With this precedent, it would not affect the club even if the other players were to sign with the live-stream platform. Not to mention that the other players would certainly not sign such a large contract.
However, there was a hidden threat. What if Huang Wang were to gather a large number of fans and indirectly gained a lot of attention to the DGE club?
Therefore, this person was a hidden threat!
Pei Qian noted silently. He had to find a chance to make arrangements for such an 'outstanding' employee. It would not work now since there was no opportunity. Moreover, the situation was not so urgent yet so they could consider it for the long term.
The more pressing issue now was about the sponsorship of the DGE club!
Waiwai Live-Streaming Platform might have felt that sponsoring DGE would allow it to have some potential in sponsorship. Most of it would be because of the DGE club's identity as 'Tengda's son'.
Sponsorship was something that attracts. There would be a second one as long as there was a first. It was the essence of being a human.
Two million might not be a lot, but what if it was a few two millions? Then, it would be awkward.
Pei Qian started the DGE club to burn money. If sponsorship could really offset all the expenses, then wouldn't it all be a waste of his efforts?
Of course, Pei Qian could also choose to let the DGE club burn money like a bottomless pit. There were so many places to spend money after all. However, spending money like a bottomless pit would also greatly attract attention from the outside world and would probably send wrong signals.
What if everyone started to raise prices and sponsor blindly? What then? There was such a possibility.
Therefore, he had to nib sponsorship at its bud. It did not make sense to not accept sponsorship, but it should be okay if they were to just control the amount, right?
Pei Qian thought about it for a while and said, "DGE can only accept up to three sponsors at a time. Sponsor logos can only be printed in three places on the team uniform: right chest and left and right arm sleeves.
"All sponsor logos had to be small; they cannot be broader than 15 cm."
Pei Qian thought about it again before adding. "Moreover, only one sponsorship from the same category of industry could be accepted at any one time."
The last condition was mainly against the live-stream industry.
Pei Qian was very worried that ZZ Live-Stream would enter as well since Waiwai Live-Streaming Platform sponsored the DGE club. There was no exclusive clause signed anyway.
What if the live-streaming platforms were to advertise DGE when the money-burning wars began? Wouldn't that cause a lot of headaches?
Therefore, Pei Qian deliberately forced it down that the sponsorship of each category should only receive one sponsor which would directly be passed to all future live-streaming platforms. The other streaming platforms could only bid one year later even if they wanted to compete.
It was not that there were no other sponsors, for example for keyboards, mouses and other peripherals such as motherboard. However, they were often not as generous as live-streaming platforms.
Moreover, they should not earn too much if they were to only limit to three sponsors.
What was more, for the logo of the sponsor to be so small would probably disgust the sponsors. They would probably also hurt the enthusiasm of some sponsors.
Zhang Yuan thought about it briefly and nodded. "Alright, Boss Pei. I understand. You are afraid that DGE would become too commercialized and would affect the mentality and training of the players.
"I will think carefully when we receive sponsorship requests and will definitely go for the best!"
Pei Qian: "?"
I'm not asking you to pick the best, but to make you take less sponsorship!
However, there was no helping it; he did not have any more strength to explain anymore. Pei Qian's original intention was for him to receive three sponsorships of 100,000 yuan each.
However, Zhang Yuan obviously did not understand it that way. If there were only three sponsorships and there were only two left now, then these two had to be considered and sold for a huge price.
Pei Qian could not say it clearly. He could only pray that there would be no more idiotic sponsors coming forth to mess things up.
It would be best if Zhang Yuan asked for a sky-high price, and the sponsors were all unwilling to be taken advantage of.
...
...
August 9th, Tuesday...
In the morning, Ye Zhizhou came to Tengda Games to meet with Li Yada, Bao Xu, and Min Jingchao. He was here to learn. Boss Pei threw a lot of money yesterday to directly help Shang Yang Games arrange a budget of 40 million dollars. However, he left a mystery with the 20 million dollars.
Boss Pei said that the current promotional strategy still had a big loophole for everyone to find out and then make up for.
Everyone in Shang Yang Games thought for a whole day with no clue.
Boss Pei had already arranged most of the mainstream promotion methods. They had thought of other promotional methods such as inviting celebrities to endorse; however, that would be no different from foreign-sponsored partnerships.
These other promotion methods were not unique enough. If one would spend 20 million US dollars this way, the price-quality ratio would be very poor, and it would certainly be impossible to meet the requirements of Boss Pei.
Therefore, Shang Yang Games sent Ye Zhizhou to Tengda Games today to ask for advice.
These people from Tengda were originally the people who developed GOG after all. They had rich experience in the promotion of the GOG domestic server. They might be able to think of something.
If time were to permit, these people from Shang Yang Games would like to complete the task independently, but time did not allow it.
The publicity plan would definitely be a unified one. No matter where the 20 million US dollars was spent, it would definitely affect other publicity plans.
For example, if the 20 million US dollars were used to find a few celebrities, these celebrities would definitely be placed in public places such as internet advertisements and on subways and buses.
These 20 million US dollars were not finalized. The publicity materials would certainly not be finalized and must be completed at the same time.
Therefore, Ye Zhizhou could only help that more brains were better than one. The four of them brainstormed together in the guest room.
Min Jingchao and the others fell into contemplation after learning about Boss Pei's promotion strategy. Several plans overlapping with the current promotional strategy were put forward and were quickly killed.
Min Jingchao thought over it again and said, "I think that we should consider it from two general directions.
"First, the direction must be able to spend most of the money and not overlap with existing promotional strategies. Second, the publicity methods should be different from those already adopted by GOG.
"Otherwise, Boss Pei will not deliberately leave this puzzle."
Ye Zhizhou frowned. "From this point, hiring foreign big-name celebrities seemed to be suitable, but the price-quality ratio may be very poor."
Li Yada shook his head. "I think that would be boring."
"The overlap of big-name celebrities and our target audiences is not high enough. We are not selling luxury goods or daily necessities. How many players can we attract by having big celebrities endorse us? The conversion rate will definitely not look good."
Bao Xu thought about it and said, "I think it won't really matter even if it overlaps with the domestic server publicity strategy. The birth of GOG represented Boss Pei's original idea. This approach seemed to match the current situation of GOG's international services.
"I mean... character IPs."
"Character IPs?" The eyes of the other three brightened up.
Bao Xu nodded. "Yes, Boss Pei had set the direction when GOG first started: Purchase a large number of Character IPs to serve as GOG's hero reserve."
Chapter 609: The Third-Largest Comic Company
"Even though we developed our own capabilities, we have never stopped buying character IPs. We have a huge place in the GOG creative area to showcase the character IPs we bought and to allow players to collect them," Bao Xu continued.
"GOG world server is currently lacking in this area!"
"That's right, we are indeed lacking in that!" Min Jingchao said in realization.
"The character IPs we have bought until now are characters with a little influence locally, but none at all when it comes to overseas. These character IPs are foreign to them.
"Comparing the current GOG hero storage to IOI, they might have the advantage locally, but the reverse is true overseas. Players overseas might be more tolerant towards the heroes of IOI.
"That is a very crucial point that we have to address!"
Ye Zhizhou gave it some thought. "Then, what if we are to create an online GOG creative site?"
Min Jingchao shook his head. "No, GOG creative sites can only make good things on the precondition that there are enough players and that a large number of them participate.
"However, GOG does not have many overseas players now. We'll definitely not be able to gather good works if we are to make a creative site now. This money would either not be able to be spent or it would be spent meaninglessly.
"You should buy some international successful IPs!
"This way, it would have the same publicity effect as big-shot celebrities or even better because the target audience would be clearer. We can code these successful IPs into the game; it is much better than to get a celebrity to endorse it!"
Ye Zhizhou became excited. "Understood! As expected, this should be the answer that Boss Pei wants!"
Everyone discussed again and became even more convinced that 'buy IPs' was the best answer to Boss Pei's puzzle. It should also be something that Boss Pei had considered.
This 'buy IPs" direction was the original principle from when GOG developed. It was now pushed into the world server and required an IP widely accepted by overseas players.
"Everyone, don't be too happy so fast. We have not fully deciphered Boss Pei's problem," Li Yada reminded everyone.
"We've decided to buy IPs, but how do we buy? Which one to buy?
"20 million US dollars will definitely not be enough if we were to buy those famous heroes since most overseas companies are eyeing them as well. The copyrights of those dramatized ones would be sky-high.
"Buying expensive big IPs will probably not be in line with Boss Pei's original intentions since Boss Pei never buys expensive big IPs locally.
"It's different from domestic markets. We have to get an IP that is influential enough for the publicity to have the effect."
Everyone entered a state of argument.
Finally, Li Yada suggested, "Therefore, we have two ways now. The first way is to buy two internationally successful IP; the second is to buy a large number of not so well known IPs that international players can identify with.
"Since we are unsure, we can send both answers to Boss Pei and let him decide."
Ye Zhizhou nodded and stood up. "Understood, thank you, everyone! I'll go back to do a simple investigation before we let Boss Pei make the final decision!"
...
...
August 10th, Wednesday...
Pei Qian received Ye Zhizhou's phone call not long after he woke up.
"Boss Pei, we have come up with GOG's international server publicity proposal! We want to buy some international character IPs to put them into the game!
"However, we now have a problem. Should we buy one or two famous international character IPs, or should we buy a few more character IPs that are not so well-known but will match international players' wants?"
Pei Qian thought about it for a while before replying. "The latter."
Such international character IPs would be too painful. Pei Qian was afraid that IOI would not be able to rival them. Such a worry might be strange, but it was not at all unreasonable.
The GOG game itself was already much better than IOI: a client-side game with reasonable fees and a whole load of character heroes. The game machine was easier to get used to and to spread.
Moreover, GOG was now being promoted overseas. There were two main points: its inability to adapt and the chances of its name spreading.
Unable to adapt was mainly from the fear of the hero's image not fitting overseas players' tastes and being unable to be localized.
Buying IPs could indeed solve this problem. However, if it was to purchase international famous IPs, Pei Qian was afraid that it would be too high-handed and kill IOI instantly. Then, he would not be able to spend money overseas as happily.
It was better to buy the smallest IPs and toy with IOI slowly. Using a blunt knife to slice the meat away little by little, it was much better for the fight.
Ye Zhizhou agreed, "Alright, we'll choose some more value for money and not so well-known character IPs. We'll report to you again after some time."
...
Ye Zhizhou looked at Lin Wan and Wang Xiaobin excitedly after he hung up the phone. "Boss Pei decided! As expected, that is the right answer! We are unbeatable in deciphering Boss Pei's intentions when both of our gaming departments join forces!"
The Lin Family looked at the materials in her hands. "Don't celebrate prematurely. There is still a lot of work to be done. The United States has so many superhero characters; how are we to choose? Which one of these is suitable for Europe?"
Everyone could feel headaches approaching looking at the long list of heroes' names in English.
The appearance of superheroes could be traced back to the early 1930s. The list had grown astronomical throughout the decades of development.
Everyone had difficult choices to make:
The heroes that everyone knew were very expensive. Boss Pei decided not to buy them.
No one knew the cheaper heroes so how were they to decide if the international players would like them or not?
Who knew that these not so well-known heroes were not so well-known because they were developed at an inopportune time or because they were failures that no one liked?
It would be okay if it was the former, but if it was the latter, then it would be a waste of money by GOG to purchase such trash.
"Let's not think about the two biggest comic companies. They should be bought by all the big corporations for hundreds of millions of US dollars. We will not be able to obtain any advantage," Ye Zhizhou said.
"Moreover, their conditions will be very strict. What we can buy will probably just be for the game copyrights. Buying some lesser-known character IPs may work, but there would also be restrictions, and their prices might not be acceptable to use. Their price-quality ratios would be worse."
"Let's not consider them then; let's continue on." Lin Wan said.
"We... seem to be able to buy the third-largest comic company in the United States. There was news two days ago that they are going bankrupt," Ye Zhizhou said after he continued reading for a while.
Lin Wan instinctively felt something wrong and asked, "The third-largest comic company is going bust? What is their market share?"
Ye Zhizhou: "Less than 5%."
Lin Wan: "..."
Wang Xiaobin was taken aback as well and complained. "If the third-largest comic company does not even have 5% market share, then does that mean the United States only has three comic companies?
"Of course not, but that is what was indicated in the materials," Ye Zhizhou replied in a jolly manner.
"I can only say that it is the current status of the industry. The first two comic companies are humongous and have about 40% market share each. The third to the tenth companies share 10% of the market while the rest is shared by even smaller companies.
"These two companies have too many superhero IPs; the market is only so big. They release comics and movies. They are of totally different leagues from the other companies."
Lin Wan nodded. "Um, typical 80/20 market share. The big companies own 80% of the market share.
"No wonder, 'third-largest comic company in the United States' may sound scary, but in fact, they only hold less than 5% market share. Moreover, they have to fight with the two big giants before them. They must find it very difficult to fight. It's no wonder they are going bankrupt."
Ye Zhizhou took the laptop and quickly read the relevant information. "Yes, traditional comic styles are no longer popular. These huge comic companies earn money from movies. The comics are like huge inspirational storage where they could obtain materials at any time for a steady flow of movies.
"However, it would just be even more difficult for those that had a small market share but not able to afford to make movies.
"This Hurricane Comic Company has a few good points. They don't only use superheroes as materials. They are more diversified. A more diversified image is better for GOG as it would mean they have more choices.
"They have a few IPs that seem to be able to fulfill westerners' taste... for example, Purgatory Duke, Mutants, and Robocop.
"There was one thing very important: they had an international IP image... 20 years ago!
"The Multifaceted Man was made into a movie in 1993. They were nominated for many Oscar categories, but they did not win it. They invested 27 million US dollars and obtained a global box office of 340 million US dollars. It was top 4 in grossing for that year. The main actor's remuneration increased twenty-fold after he finished filming this movie.
"However, Hurricane Comic Company was not the investor so they did not obtain much benefit. That was its last glory. Their popularity was on a decline after that.
"It's just that... the good part is the character IP of the Multifaceted Man is still rather popular. Many westerners should find him familiar. More than half of Hurricane Comic Company's value is on this IP.
"It might feel like we are picking up from the trash, but I have to say that this trash feels rather worthwhile."