Top of the Great Era

Google's focus on social networking will lead to a further downturn in the game industry. The logic behind this, let alone foreign capital institutions, is rarely analyzed even by people in the industry.

It just so happened that Zhou Buqi was the special one.

Some time ago, he talked about this topic when he was discussing the future development of the game industry and Changyou with Lao Zhang.

Google+, a social networking site launched by Google, is actually an SNS-type website, and its target is Facebook.Therefore, after the launch of Google +, the most nervous and urgent thing is of course Facebook.

Originally, Zuckerberg didn't think about promoting Facebook's listing so early, because the market is not too good at this stage, and it is best to go public after a year or two.

Moreover, Facebook has a strong ability to make money. This year's net profit can reach 10 billion US dollars, and it is growing at a growth rate of 100%.

If you have money and the market is not good, there is no need to go public at all.

The reason for going public is to raise a lot of money, and then go against Google!
After getting the money from financing, Facebook will temporarily slow down its goal of making money, return to the route of polishing products and attracting users, and concentrate on making good products to compete with Google+.

Because once the goal is to make money, the richness and playability of the product will inevitably be sacrificed, which may make competitors stand out.

And now the most profitable sector in Facebook is the open platform.

The most profitable area in the open platform is social games.

In the past two years, social games have been popular in the United States and even the world, which is also related to Facebook's recommendation mechanism.Because this game can make money and users like to play it, Facebook gives most of the referral traffic to social games.

This has promoted the popularity of social games.

However, this also has disadvantages.

If most of the traffic is used to recommend social games, then many other rich and interesting gameplays and diversified content on the Facebook platform will not be taken care of.

If the functions and content cannot be user-oriented, yes or no.

In order to compete with Google+, Facebook will inevitably reduce the recommendation ratio of social games, so as to introduce more content and functions in the platform to users, so that users can understand that Facebook is not a social game platform, but a real one with a large user base. A social platform with interesting gameplay.

All in all, in the competition with Google+, Facebook will definitely slow down its profitability and focus more on products and users, thus firmly locking in the throne of the "big brother" in the social market.

Facebook needs to get a large amount of money to go public for financing, so as to ensure the stability of cash flow and promote the subsidy strategy in the process of competing with Google+.

Poor social gaming has fallen victim to a two-horse race.

Without the traffic strongly promoted by Facebook, the popularity of social games will become weaker and cooler.

Zhou Buqi said: "Before Facebook goes public, they will not adjust their strategic goals, and even in order to give a better IPO financial report, they will be more active in promoting commercialization, so that Facebook can make more money in the fourth quarter. .The real crisis is after Facebook goes public. Once it goes public and gets money, it’s time to adjust its strategy and focus on competing with Google+.”

Don Mattrick said: "In the light web game market, there have been some very dangerous forks in the road. Game games have become popular recently."

"I've heard," Zhou Buqi smiled, understating, "It's not a big problem!"

Mattrick explained, "Gambling games are games with a gambling nature such as online card games, lottery draws, dice rolls, and lottery tickets. These games are not social games at all. Social games are mainly social, in the form of games. Come socialize. Gaming games have no social attributes at all.”

Zhou Buqi nodded, "Of course, but it doesn't matter, how many people can understand it? The current web version of the game appears as a social game, which is deceptive. Is there any response from EA? ? Do they have a problem with the Friend Studio deal?"

Matt smiled, "No."

Zhou Buqi said: "It's not surprising. Whether it's social games or gaming games, these are all new things. Once people get older, their understanding of these new things can't keep up. Delay, hysteresis."

Mattrick said in a deep voice: "The emergence of game games will exacerbate the decline of social games."

As Changyou's upcoming CEO, Don Mattrick, this is what worries him the most.

The game industry has been sluggish for more than two years now.

On the one hand is the impact of the economic crisis.

On the other hand, it is also a fork in the game industry itself.

In the past, traditional PC games have almost peaked, and the upward momentum has slowed down. Instead, the new market is social games and more distant mobile games.

So EA wants to acquire Friends Studio, in fact, it wants to keep up with the era of social games.Including Blizzard, also based on the theme of "Warcraft", launched several versions of card-type web games.

The era of mobile games has not yet arrived.

Social games are currently the main direction that can boost market confidence in the game industry, and it is also an area where capital can pay more attention.

Once Facebook adjusts its strategy, once gambling games become popular... then it is conceivable that the vitality of social games will gradually disappear.

When the capital reacts, it will be a fatal blow to the global game industry!
The current game industry is sluggish, and it is just the beginning.

The real bottom is when social games collapse.

Although Ziweixing International sold the friend's studio to EA early on, it was a big bargain, and the deal made a lot of money.

However, what Mattrick is thinking about now is after he becomes the executive director and CEO of Changyou.

There are no eggs under the covering nest.

Once the social game industry collapses, the game industry will fall into the lowest ebb, and the stock price of Changyou will also continue to fall. This is not what he wants to see.

There is no sympathy or reason in the capital market.

Once the company's stock price continues to slump, the first thing the board of directors of a listed company often does is to take the CEO.

The company's operations are poor, and the stock price is in a slump. It is still reasonable to take the CEO's knife.But in many cases, it is the failure of the entire industry, which leads to the downturn in the company's stock price.At this time, the board of directors will not be sympathetic, and will mercilessly attack the CEO. Regardless of whether he is innocent or not, he must always give an explanation to the market and shareholders.

That was Don Mattrick's worst fear.

He had heard that Boss Zhou was extremely decisive and ruthless this time, firing Wang Fang, the founder and CEO of Changyou.Once the social game crash caused the game industry to fall into a trough, and the big boss used himself to explain to the outside world for his own face, what should we do?
Seeing that his expression was uncertain, Zhou Buqi really didn't expect this, so he asked him strangely what was going on.

The collapse of the social game will not do much harm to Changyou or Ziweixing.

After hesitating for a moment, Mattrick simply told the whole story, expressing his worries frankly.If you don't say ugly words first, you may really become a blame man in the future.

"This……"

Zhou Buqi was in a daze.

This is an American. Sure enough, he has a different way of thinking and maintains a high degree of attention to the capital market. This is really different from Ren Yuxin, another co-CEO in charge of domestic business.

Zhou Buqi communicated with Ren Yuxin many times, each time from the perspective of strategy, management, business, and products, and never discussed the stock price.

What about the level of the stock price?
If the work is done well, the stock price will rise sooner or later; if the work is not done well, even if the stock price is high, it will be a castle in the sky and there are huge hidden dangers.

However, Don Mattrick's thinking can't be wrong. As the company's CEO, he should be responsible for the stock price.

Zhou Buqi felt that this matter was more important, and said in a serious tone: "First of all, what I want to say is that Changyou cannot rely on stock price theory. Stock price is not the only criterion for measuring work results. Changyou is a game company. In the final analysis, it is necessary to make good games, A good product. Focus on the product, not the stock price. Changyou is a thriving company that is still at the start-up stage, so you can’t focus on the stock price!”

"Start-up companies……"

Mattrick twitched the corners of his mouth, which was really loud enough.The current market value of Changyou is more than 140 billion US dollars. With such a large scale, in the eyes of the big boss, it is still in the start-up stage.

Zhou Buqi went on to say: "Secondly, the prospect of traditional PC games is pessimistic, but new types of PC games have appeared, haven't you noticed?"

"What is it?"

"Competitive games!"

"Oh," Mattrick suddenly realized, ""Dota 2", indeed, this is indeed a new type of game that has the opportunity to become popular on the PC side."

Zhou Buqi went on to say: "The operation of "Dota 2" is still a bit complicated, but we also have "League of Legends" with simpler operation, easier learning, and lower threshold. These two games are enough for Changyou to continue its history. The popularity of PC games."

Mattrick's eyes were bright, "If this is the case, that's great, and it's also good news for the market and the industry."

This angle is fine.

It is in line with the vision and pattern of Changyou CEO.

There are no eggs under the overturned nest. Only when the market and industry are good, the best in the industry will be better.The market is sluggish and the industry is sluggish, even the best are not much better.

Zhou Buqi went on to say: "The third is the mobile game I have been emphasizing. Social games will decline, that is for sure. No matter what Facebook does, dare not how game games disrupt the social game market, Changyou only needs to use Do your own thing well and do a good job with mobile games! The era of smartphones has arrived, and there are hundreds of millions of smartphones in stock around the world. This is a vibrant new market! Changyou will be the leader in the mobile game industry to lead the world. Game industry!"

Mattrick took a deep breath, "Use the mobile games that are launched as early as possible to hedge against the market risks brought about by the collapse of the social game industry."

Zhou Buqi smiled slightly, "Risk means opportunity. Changyou has done this, resolved industry risks, and helped all peers avoid disasters. We will be well-deserved industry leaders!"