The diva and I cross each other

To be honest, Luo Ming didn't have much confidence in the sales of "Fengshen". What Luo Ming just said to Li Yan that if it could sell 200 million in the first week, it would be a success, was not just talk, but he really thought so.

For a buyout game, first-week sales of less than 50 are considered extremely poor and there is basically no hope for them. Sales of 50 to 100 do have a slight hope for a comeback, depending on how the word of mouth develops. Sales of just over 100 are the most embarrassing, being neither up nor down, and 200 is considered a good result, at least it will be able to break even.

Luo Ming’s only requirement for “Fengshen” is to break even, he doesn’t dare to think of more.

Speaking of 3A masterpieces, Luo Ming couldn't help but think of "Black Myth: Wukong" in his previous life. When he traveled through time, this game had not yet been launched. I wonder how the sales will be when it is launched, what is the quality of the game? Can it sell 200 million copies in the first week?
The development cost of Black Myth: Wukong is about two-thirds of that of Investiture of the Gods. It seems that it doesn't need to sell 200 million copies. It will probably have a chance of making a profit if it sells 120 million copies in the first week.

Thinking back to his previous life, Luo Ming felt a little melancholy. Naturally, he had no intention of dealing with his work. Luo Ming turned off the computer and left the office.

"Mr. Luo, where are you going?" asked Li Yan, who came over holding documents.

"I'm a little tired today. Let's talk about work tomorrow!" After saying that, Luo Ming got into the elevator without looking back.

Li Yan sighed. President Luo was really willful.

Time quickly arrived on May 5.15th, and the pre-sale of "Fengshen" began.

Luo Ming did not keep an eye on the pre-sale data of "Fengshen", but just told Li Yan to let him know when the pre-sale exceeded 10.

As a result, it was not until May 5.18 that Luo Ming received the news from Li Yan that the pre-sale sales of "Fengshen" exceeded 10.

Luo Ming was now even more uncertain about the sales of "Investiture of the Gods". After thinking for a while, he said, "Li Yan, please tell Zhao Ningyuan for me to contact more anchors on live streaming platforms, and then have Rongmu do more publicity on our company's APP. At least we need to create the impression that it is very popular."

"Mr. Luo, it seems we don't need to create the heat." Li Yan said.

"What do you mean?"

"The popularity of Investiture of the Gods on major social media platforms is not low. Our game is among the top ten searches on Weibo, not to mention our own APP. President Rong has already made arrangements."

"In other words, the current situation is that the reviews are good but the sales are not, right?"

"Not necessarily. Our game hasn't been released yet. Who knows what the final sales will be like? It's a bit too early to say whether it will be a critical success or a commercial failure."

"Oh! So be it! Let the bullets fly for a while."

The next day, Luo Ming suddenly received a call from Mr. Li from Baidu.

Mr. Li's voice sounds cheerful, and Pinduoduo's recent sales data is indeed very good. It can be said that Pinduoduo has established a firm foothold in the fields of mid- and low-end products and agricultural and sideline products.

Mr. Li called because of this.

"Mr. Luo, Pinduoduo's position in the low- and mid-end markets is already very solid. Should we explore the mid- and high-end markets?" Mr. Li asked tentatively.

Pinduoduo's development strategy has always been determined by Luo Ming. Baidu is only acting in accordance with the development strategy formulated by Luo Ming. To put it bluntly, it is just an executor.

Facts have proved that Luo Ming's development plan is indeed very useful. Since the establishment of Pinduoduo, it has been smooth sailing without any major setbacks and has developed steadily to this day.

Because of this, when it comes to opening up new markets, Mr. Li did not make the decision himself, but instead came to discuss it with Luo Ming.

After hearing what Mr. Li said, Luo Ming smiled and said, "Mr. Li, it's a coincidence that I just had the same idea.

However, this high-end market is actually not easy to explore. Nowadays, everyone has developed the habit of shopping. They buy snacks and daily necessities on Pinduoduo, clothes, cosmetics and the like on Taobao, and various digital products and electrical appliances on JD.com.

Habits are terrible things. Once formed, they are difficult to change. It is almost impossible for Pinduoduo to change user habits.”

Mr. Li agreed with Luo Ming's statement. As the helmsman of an Internet giant, Mr. Li is well aware of the impact of usage habits on users. People are creatures of habit, and once a habit is formed, it is very difficult to change.

Luo Ming also knows how difficult it is to change habits, take mobile phones for example!

At the beginning, many people bought iPhones just to show off. At that time, iPhones were expensive, had good performance, and were better than Android phones in all aspects of hardware and software. It was no exaggeration to say that it was a symbol of status.

This was also the reason why many contractors and nouveau riche liked to use iPhones at that time.

But when Luo Ming traveled through time, it was almost 2024. Android phones had high refresh rates and fast charging, and the signal was many times stronger than that of the iPhone. The processors that Apple fans used to praise to the sky were also defeated by the Snapdragon 8gen3 and Dimensity 9300. Even the closed system that the iPhone was proud of was beginning to be criticized for being inconvenient.

The only areas where the iPhone is better than Android phones are probably system stability and video recording capabilities.

But in the face of these iPhones, they still stick to their old ways. To put it nicely, it is insisting on their own brand, but to put it bluntly, it simply does not treat users as human beings.

What’s even more outrageous is that after the iPhone 12 went on sale, they didn’t even provide a charger with it, using environmental protection as an excuse. When you bought a mobile phone, they didn’t even provide a charger. Is this reasonable?
But there are many users who still choose to use iPhone, and these people will consciously defend the iPhone and argue with others online. When they can't win the argument, they will start to talk about the fact that there are many iPhone factories in China and many people make a living by iPhone.

Is the iPhone really that easy to use in the eyes of these users? In fact, it is not, and many times iPhone users themselves also complain about the iPhone product.

But once a new product appears, or when there is a need to change their phone, they will still buy an iPhone without hesitation.

This is the power of habit. They have developed a habit of buying and using iPhones, and consciously maintaining iPhones is also a habit of theirs.

It is extremely difficult to change a person's habits, and domestic mobile phone manufacturers should be the most qualified to speak on this point.

Dami and Weiwei were initially competing with the iPhone, but later they found that no matter how good their phones were, it was difficult to attract iPhone users to buy them. In addition, Weiwei was affected by force majeure, so the two manufacturers gradually gave up this meaningless behavior.

Luo Ming believes that the user market for iPhone phones will continue to exist in China. Unless the iPhone comes into conflict with some national-level apps one day, there will be people who will buy it no matter how bad the iPhone is.

"Boss Luo, user habits are difficult to change. Can we find a way around it?"

Mr. Li’s words interrupted Luo Ming’s thoughts.

Luo Ming cleared his throat and said, "Mr. Li, you may have made some mistakes. It is indeed difficult to change user habits, but many people have succeeded in the past!

Pinduoduo is a ready-made example. Habits are difficult to change, but they are not impossible to change, especially some habits on the Internet. There is no consumption habit on the Internet that cannot be changed by money. "

"Mr. Luo, do you mean to use the old method to subsidize users?" Mr. Li asked. "Yes, but it's not an ordinary subsidy, it's a large and long-lasting subsidy."

"Isn't this too costly?" asked Mr. Li.

"Not big at all. Mr. Li, what do you think of Pinduoduo's corporate image now?" Luo Ming asked back.

"A place to buy affordable fruits, vegetables, meat, eggs, milk, and cheap small commodities." Mr. Li thought for a while and gave his answer.

“Yes, this is Pinduoduo’s current corporate image. The reason for this corporate image is that Pinduoduo’s long-term group buying model and the normalization of selling cheap goods have restricted Pinduoduo’s long-term development.

Consumers who have been buying in groups for a long time find it difficult to accept the increase in the unit price of goods, while middle- and high-end consumers in first- and second-tier cities are unwilling to spend time and effort to buy goods with unguaranteed quality for a small discount, resulting in most of the goods on the Pinduoduo platform being cheap.

The subsidies I mentioned are not only to allow Pinduoduo to occupy a larger market share, but more to break consumers’ stereotypes about Pinduoduo.”

"Then how exactly are we going to provide subsidies?" Mr. Li asked.

"It's very simple. We directly provide unlimited and unlimited subsidies for the hot-selling products on the entire network, especially the big brands and high-priced products.

This direct subsidy method can help Pinduoduo break the original low-quality and copycat image in the minds of consumers, approach the needs of mid- to high-end users, and expand Pinduoduo's user base."

"Then how much subsidy should we get?" asked Mr. Li.

"The actual amount of subsidies is not important. What is important is that the slogans are loud and clear."

"The slogan should be loud?"

"That's right. We want users to have a high-end, classy feeling. I suggest that this subsidy be called the 10 billion subsidy."

Upon hearing the name of the 10 billion subsidy, Mr. Li fell silent again.

This is too big! Are you sure it's okay?
The 10 billion subsidies that Luo Ming wants to get here are not the 10 billion subsidies that Pinduoduo got in his previous life.

In the past, Pinduoduo's 10 billion yuan subsidy highlighted a simple and crude point, that is, the price consumers finally purchased = cost price - platform subsidy price.

This subsidy plan is a promotional gimmick launched by Pinduoduo during the 2019 shopping festival in 618. From home appliances to home appliances, from clothes, shoes, skin care products to TVs, air conditioners, refrigerators, etc., the prices received by consumers are much lower than normal prices. In order to attract more consumers, the products involved in the event are also diverse.

At that time, Pinduoduo actually invested a huge amount of money. The general subsidies were just to give consumers some price discounts after ensuring the profitability of the platform.

The 5 billion yuan subsidy launched by Pinduoduo at that time was a 50%-% subsidy on the cost price, that is, the final actual selling price = cost price - subsidy amount. The price would really be lower than usual, and much lower.

Unfortunately, Pinduoduo is a company with courage, but only a little courage. They provided subsidies, but they had crooked ideas about product quality.

Many products with billions of yuan in subsidies are actually returned products from other platforms, or are simply refurbished or reinstalled machines. Users may seem to be getting a discount, but in fact, the quality control of the products they buy cannot be guaranteed.

After all this, Pinduoduo's quality problems were not resolved until after June 2021, 6.18, when Pinduoduo changed its operating strategy. Since then, the product quality control issues with hundreds of billions of subsidies have improved a little.

The 10 billion subsidies that Luo Ming wants to get here are not the same as Pinduoduo in his previous life.

Today, Pinduoduo has the backing of two Internet giants and plenty of financial support. Why would it do something that would damage its reputation and future development?

Just throw in real money and provide generous subsidies and that's it.

"Boss Luo, this is a big deal. I need to think about it. I also need to notify the shareholders. I will get back to you in two days."

"Okay, Mr. Li, please go ahead."

Luo Ming only proposed his own plan. It was his business whether Mr. Li was willing to adopt it or not. After all, Pinduoduo has always been managed by Mr. Li, and Zhuo Guang actually had no direct relationship with Pinduoduo.

On the contrary, Baidu breathed a sigh of relief this year thanks to the rise of Pinduoduo.

Now for Baidu, as long as Pinduoduo can go public smoothly, Baidu's position as an Internet giant will not be shaken. Therefore, compared with Zhuo Guang, Baidu is the one that attaches more importance to the future development of Pinduoduo.

This was indeed the case. Two days later, Mr. Li agreed to Luo Ming's proposal.

Based on the shareholding ratio of both parties, 55 billion and 45 billion will be injected into Pinduoduo respectively to support Pinduoduo's 618 billion subsidy during the event next month.

"By the way, Mr. Luo, I heard that your company's 3A masterpiece "Fengshen" will also be launched in June?" After talking about Pinduoduo, Mr. Li changed the subject and asked with interest.

"Yes, our company's Investiture of the Gods will indeed be launched next month."

"Mr. Luo, the R&D cost of 3A games is very high, right?" Mr. Li asked.

"To be honest with you, Mr. Li, we did invest a lot of money," Luo Ming replied.

"Boss Luo, don't you think that making 3A games is not cost-effective?"

"Compared to mobile games, the AAA games we invested so much money in are not very cost-effective. I even hope that my current expectation for Investiture of the Gods is to just make back my investment."

After hearing what Luo Ming said, Mr. Li frowned and asked, "Mr. Luo, since you know that making 3A masterpieces has no cost-effectiveness, why do you still want to do it?
You and I are both businessmen, and businessmen pursue profits. If we know that there is no cost-effectiveness and that we may lose money, why should we spend time doing these things? "

Luo Ming smiled and said, "Do businessmen have to pursue profits? Mr. Li, some things always need people to do them. Instead of letting a group of idealists with no money sell their houses and cars and even break up their families to do it, it is better for us businessmen with a lot of money and resources to do it.

For us, even if this attempt fails, it will not have any impact on the company. A 3A masterpiece is just a drop in the bucket for us now. It also helps these idealists verify the market situation of domestic 3A games and whether it is worth it for them to give up everything to do it. "

After listening to Luo Ming's words, Mr. Li suddenly remembered that Luo Ming on the other end of the phone was only 26 years old this year and was still a young man.

Luo Ming's foresight in business has always made Mr. Li ignore his age.

It is normal for a 26-year-old to do things without considering gains and losses. Only when you are young will you have the courage to do these things. It’s great to be young! (End of this chapter)