Top of the Great Era

Chapter 1878 Co-CEOs
Zhou Buqi’s game business didn’t start with Changyou. In fact, Ziweixing International has already started it by acquiring Baokai Game Studio.

However, whether it is Popcap's "Plants vs. Zombies" or the acquisition of "Angry Birds" and "Minecraft", making these games is essentially not compatible with Zhou Buqi's core business philosophy.

The future is dominated by the platform economy.

If you want to do it, do a "tax-collecting" business.

Build a platform, let others consume on this platform, and then draw a commission from it yourself, and make money through "taxation" to be safe and sustainable, just like Amazon.

Friends.com, Weibo, and WeChat are actually platforms. Build a platform that allows users to upload their own content, and then attract more users through user content. In this way, the traffic will increase.

More traffic means more advertisers.

The game is different, this is a direct end.

So when Zhou Buqi was developing games in China, he transferred both the JJ chess and card game hall and "Three Kingdoms" to Changyou.It doesn't matter whether you make money or not, the key is to form a business and conceptual support.

Ziweixing International has established a game business department here, and it has been in full swing. Last year's financial report was very impressive, with an astonishing annual revenue of 9.7 million U.S. dollars and a net profit of 4.8 million U.S. dollars.

Among them, 90% are from the core Baokai studio.

It can be said that it has achieved unprecedented success!

Last year, in Ziwei Star's international department, the game department had the most revenue and made the most money.

This is due to the strategic design of Boss Zhou.

Prior to this, Popcap had a major competitor in the gaming market, Zynga.

Before Ziweixing acquired Baokai, Baokai had already been beaten to the ground by Zynga. Zynga embraced Facebook's thigh and became the most popular game studio in Facebook's open platform.

Zhou Buqi didn't let Baokai follow Zynga's strategy.

He chose a risky but promising strategy!

Go mobile!

Redesign and develop Baokai's classic casual games in the past few years, and release all iOS and Android versions, fully exerting force on the mobile Internet!

Then, the market exploded.

In the past few years, Baokai Studio has accumulated too much, and there are too many classic leisure and entertainment games.In addition to "Plants vs. Zombies", which is currently popular all over the world, there are also "Bejeweled", "Swallowing Fish", "Bookworm Adventure", "Ningbo Mahjong", "Texas Hold'em", "Zuma" and so on.

In the past year, the downloads of Baokai’s games on the Apple side reached 3.9 million times.

It has not yet reached the stage of free games for all, and the price of genuine games is $0.99.

Of Popkai’s $8.4 million in revenue last year, $1.7 million came from PCs, $1.8 million came from Facebook’s open platform, and the remaining $5 million came from smartphones.

Even Zhou Buqi had to sigh with emotion, the game industry is really profitable!
However, in the final analysis, he still doesn't want to lead Ziweixing to end in the game field. The logic of game products is completely different from that of Internet products... Now he has a new choice, which is Changyou.

After listing, Changyou did not perform well in the capital market.

It doesn't seem to have much to do with Lao Zhang's flirting with female stars, because even though Lao Zhang has broken up and clarified the relationship, Changyou's stock price has continued to fall.

The stock price has already broken.

On this day, Zhou Buqi called Lu Qi over, as well as Don Mattrick, the president of the game business group.

Mainly say two things.

Zhou Buqi said: "First, Ziweixing's plan for the game business should still develop towards a platform-based model."

Lu Qi expressed his support, and said with a smile: "The two transactions are proceeding in an orderly manner, and Steam and Justin.tv can basically win."

Steam is somewhat similar to the domestic Haofang battle platform.

However, due to differences in national conditions, Steam has more channels in terms of profit methods, and it is a real game platform.Unlike Haofang, which can only make money by advertising and selling cheats.

Like playing Call of Duty.

Domestic players can download any pirated version and connect to Haofang to play games. Steam cannot connect with pirated games. Users must first pay for genuine games on the Steam platform before they can play.

There are also some games that may have built-in consumption. Buying some skins, equipment, point cards, etc., will also spend money on the platform.

For all these transactions on the platform, the platform will take a 30% commission.

The more games there are, the more players there are, the more active the platform economy is, and the more "taxes" will be collected.

Justin.tv is a video site.

Because YouTube is too powerful, small companies can't compete at all, so they can only focus on differentiation. In the design of Justin.tv, the video content is divided into certain categories and divided into social, technology, sports, entertainment, news, games and other channels.

The other channels are actually pretty good.

But the game channel became popular immediately and became the most popular game channel in the United States. Gamers would post some cool game videos and share them with players.

It was this game channel that Zhou Buqi had his eyes on.

Lu Qi seemed to hold his hand, and said confidently: "The logic of the platform is similar, like Netflix, Twitter, and Amazon. In the final analysis, it relies on content to attract users. Steam has been able to develop in the past few years. It was the online play of the game "Counter-Strike." However, with the changes of the times, this game is not as popular as it was in previous years."

Zhou Buqi understood his meaning immediately, and said with a smile: "We now have "Dota 2", which should be the most attractive battle game at the moment."

Lu Qi said: "That's right, "Dota 2" is now the most popular game on Steam. Not only Steam, but other game platforms are also at the top of the list. There are only two ways in front of Steam, or Sell ​​it to us, or "Dota 2" will be taken off the shelves."

"Cough cough..."

A humble gentleman like Zhou Buqi is really not used to this kind of unequivocal and cold strategy.

However, for the sake of the company's development, this is the only way to do it.

Then, he looked at Don Mattrick, and said insincerely: "Google is going to acquire Motorola. This deal has been questioned by the industry. The biggest reason is the compatibility of the Android system and Motorola's mobile phone business." , there will be suspicion of being both a referee and an athlete.”

Lu Qi nodded, "Ziweixing still needs to develop a platform economy in the final analysis. Steam is a game platform, and Justin.tv has been transformed into a professional game video website."

A smart person like Don Mattrick immediately understood what the two bosses were talking about, and said in surprise: "The company is going to sell the game business department?"

"No, don't get excited."

Zhou Buqi quickly comforted him.

Ziweixing's game business department has grown from scratch to such a large scale today. Don Mattrick is the first to contribute. This is a game master.

Now that the business department has developed, the company is thinking of selling this department. This is really a serious blow to his work in the past few years.

Zhou Buqi hesitated for a moment, then said slowly: "Have you paid attention to Changyou?"

"Ok?"

Don Mattrick raised his eyebrows, as if he understood what Boss Zhou had planned.

Zhou Buqi said: "After Changyou went public, the stock price was under too much pressure, and the stock price broke last week. Changyou is my company, but I am only an executive director, not the chairman, nor the CEO."

"you you……"

Don Mattrick took a deep breath.

Now I'm sure!
Boss Zhou is here to save Changyou and lead Changyou out of the quagmire of huge stock price pressure. The tool is his game business department!

He wants to treat Ziwei Star International's game business department as a sacrifice and sell it to Changyou!

Zhou Buqi said frankly: "To be honest, I am already in operation. If there is no accident, within half a year, I will reorganize Changyou's board of directors. I will drive out the current CEO and remove the current chairman. I will Serve as the chairman of Changyou and lead the board of directors!"

The expression on Don Mattrick's face immediately changed from worry to joy.

Lu Qi laughed and said, "Tang, do you understand now? This is a good thing! I want to congratulate you in advance!"

Don Mattrick couldn't hide his excitement, "I... I will join Changyou as... the CEO?"

It's so obvious.

Boss Zhou said that he will drive out Changyou's current chairman and CEO, and then he will be the chairman.So the question is, who will the new CEO be?
Seeing the other party's friendly attitude, it is self-evident.

Zhou Buqi laughed and said, "To be precise, it is the joint CEO. Changyou's business will be divided into two parts. You may not know much about the situation in our country, so I will choose a manager who understands the domestic situation better. CEO. You are in charge of overseas business.”

"thanks, thanks!"

Don Mattrick's face was flushed, and the excitement was palpable.

This doesn't require too much consideration.

In Ziwei Star International, Don Mattrick is only the president of the game business group at a level of M6, and there are seven or eight leaders above his head.

Joining Changyou is different.

He is the CEO, in charge of all overseas businesses, and he only needs to be responsible to Boss Zhou.

This is not only a promotion, but also increased power.

More importantly, it gave him more room to display his career ambitions.

After all, Ziweixing International is not a game company. Even if it had a game business before, it only made some light-weight casual games, which is too restrictive.

Joining Changyou is different. This is a pure game company, with fewer constraints and a wider vision, and can have greater prospects for career development.

Zhou Buqi looked at him with a smile, "So, you agree?"

Don Mattrick said: "I can't think of any reason to refuse. For me, this is an important opportunity, and I must seize it!"

"Don't think about it?"

"Need not!"

(End of this chapter)