You call this entrepreneurship?

Chapter 473

Collaboration on Farmville?
Zhou Yuan's words surprised Pang Shengdong. "Happy Farm" is the hottest topic on the Internet nowadays. If there is a hot search topic list, "Happy Farm" will definitely be ranked first.

Nowadays, netizens on the Internet will discuss one thing every day: Have you stolen vegetables today?

No one had expected that the number of users of the stealing vegetables game and the wide range of people it covers, from primary school students who have just learned to use the Internet to the elderly in their sixties and seventies, all of them enjoy working hard on the farm.

"Happy Farm" has become the most important social activity among friends and relatives in the Internet space, even surpassing QQ chat.

In addition, the recent lawsuit between Penguin and Facebook originated from the plagiarism and infringement of QQ Farm and Happy Farm. Various topics have been made popular, making the hype of "stealing vegetables" known to everyone.

Many media outlets followed up on this phenomenon, and then experts analyzed why the entire nation was so keen on "stealing vegetables" and criticized the Chinese people from top to bottom.

Putting aside the old-fashioned dog talk of these "experts", Pang Shengdong has carefully studied the game Happy Farm. Although the game looks simple, from the perspective of design and the social effects achieved, it can be said to be a masterpiece.

Through simple planting and breeding, agricultural and sideline products are produced, and then processed and sold to obtain gold coins.

The gold coins obtained by users can be used to purchase seeds, fertilizers and other props, and then invested in production.

Happy Farm also adds development gameplay such as building upgrades, so that users can consume the excess gold coins they produce.

After the building is upgraded, its appearance and use are worth pursuing, and the upgrade route is still very long, which makes the consumption of gold coins huge and prolongs the life of the game.

The biggest role of "Happy Farm" is to increase user stickiness. Thanks to the game "Happy Farm", the campus network achieved a maximum of 20 million online users.

Pang Shengdong frowned and asked cautiously, "Boss Qin asked us to help promote Happy Farm. How does it work?"

"It's very simple. Just put up ads on your 51.com and direct users to Happy Farm," Zhou Yuan replied.

Zhou Yuan said it lightly, but Pang Shengdong was extremely nervous.

Importing your own users into Happy Farm, isn't that just making things easier for the campus network? All the users will go to the campus network.

This is direct blood sucking!
Seeing that the other party had a gloomy face and didn't speak for a long time, Zhou Yuan guessed the other party's concerns, so he laughed, "Boss Pang, are you afraid that we will use the game "Happy Farm" to directly attract 51.com users?"

Pang Shengdong's thoughts were exposed, and an embarrassed look appeared on his face. "Compared with the campus network, our 51 network is just a small shrimp. The campus network has high-quality users. President Qin should not look down on our 51 network users."

"I'm not afraid that the campus network will siphon off our users. I'm afraid that we'll ruin Mr. Qin's plans and won't be able to help Happy Farm."

Zhou Yuan sneered, "Too small, Mr. Pang, your vision is too small."

"First of all, I want to correct one thing. Happy Farm is indeed represented by the campus network, but the users of Happy Farm are not the same as the users of the campus network."

"The campus network is just a traffic entrance for Happy Farm, just like Baidu and portal website advertising. Happy Farm is an independent game, and its users register a separate account, but this account can open the campus network seamlessly."

"Boss Qin is looking for you to cooperate. He also sees your 51.com as a traffic portal and has no intention of stealing your users. It is the same as you putting up an advertisement."

Pang Shengdong finally breathed a sigh of relief. So you wanted to advertise. If you had said that earlier, I wouldn't have been so nervous.

"Since the campus network wants to advertise, I'll give you a 20% discount for Mr. Qin's sake!" Pang Shengdong waved his hand in a pretentious manner, "You pay me 5 million per month..."

"Wait!" Zhou Yuan interrupted Pang Shengdong again, "Our CEO Qin said that the traditional advertising model is outdated, and he plans to change to a new cooperation model."

"A new cooperation model?" Pang Shengdong was stunned for a moment, then became alert. "What are the rules, Mr. Qin?"

"The previous advertising model was to put a link on a web page and negotiate the price based on a fixed fee." Zhou Yuan raised his finger. "This model cannot well reflect the real data of a website. You know, fake website data is very serious."

Pang Shengdong felt a little embarrassed when he heard this. Inflating data is just a common practice among Internet entrepreneurs. However, he was still confident, after all, the data quality of 51.com was still very high.

"The quality of our users is reliable, and you will never lose money by advertising with us."

"Words are not enough." Zhou Yuan didn't believe Pang Shengdong's boasting at all. "You should listen to our plan first."

"Compared to the original fixed-price plan, we call the new plan the volume-buying model."

"Buying volume?" Pang Shengdong frowned. "How do you calculate this buying volume?"

"After our Happy Farm advertisement is posted on your 51.com, we will charge based on the number of clicks and registrations. Clicking on the link to enter Happy Farm and completing the registration will be counted as one user." Zhou Yuan looked at Pang Shengdong, "How about cents per user?"

Pang Shengdong frowned and thought carefully for a long time. If he calculated according to the price given by the other party, and if his users contributed 10 million registrations to "Happy Farm", that would be 2 million.

Although it claims to have 100 million users, the actual number of active users is only 20 to 30 million. Even if all users register, its revenue will only be 5 to 6 million.

It seems to be about the same as one month's advertising costs, but advertising costs are fixed income.

Buying traffic does not guarantee that all users can register for "Happy Farm", and 51.com's revenue is actually not that much.

"Do you feel like you've lost out?" Zhou Yuan smiled and continued without waiting for the other party to speak, "It's normal for you to have this thought. It seems that buying traffic doesn't make as much money as the fixed advertising model."

"But you have to take a long-term view and not be obsessed with this little gain or loss."

What do you mean by not caring? That’s millions.

Pang Shengdong complained in his heart, you campus network are rich and powerful so you can not care about it, but I can't.

Sequoia only gave me $6 million, and I have almost spent it now. I still have to consider how to make a profit.

You said you don't care about the gain or loss, so why don't you give me more money?

Zhou Yuan said calmly: "This cooperation is just an appetizer. We just want to test the potential of 51.com and the quality of its users."

"If everything goes well, we will have more cooperation in the future."

"We are not just buying traffic this time, we have more projects and products."

If you were to say that, I wouldn't be sleepy anymore. Pang Shengdong suddenly became alert and asked expectantly, "Boss Zhou, are you kidding me? Are there really other projects?"

"Do you think I'm idle?" Zhou Yuan glared at him. "Boss Qin thinks highly of you and is willing to give you a chance. Don't be ungrateful."

"I don't dare." Pang Shengdong said quickly, "I just don't know for sure."

"Your 51.com only gets its users by luring QQ users. You are a tree without roots and water without a source." Zhou Yuan said calmly, "Do you think QQ will let you lie down and suck their blood? When they use their blood to deal with you, you won't be able to stop them."

"Let's not talk about anything else. Just in terms of the number of users and financial strength, 51.com and Penguin are not on the same level." "Especially, you have a fatal weakness, which is the profit model."

"QQ Space can ignore profitability, but you can't. Penguin can kill you."

"So if you want to survive, you must have the ability to generate revenue and have your own characteristics, so that users can stay."

"Boss Qin has already considered this for you. As long as you cling to our campus network, you will naturally benefit."

"You have seen the situation of Happy Farm, and there is great potential for web games in the future."

"Boss Qin has found a good project for you. You can make a lot of money by being the agent of web games in the future."

"Web game?" Pang Shengdong was very curious. "What kind of project is it? Can it definitely make money?"

"Are you questioning President Qin?" Zhou Yuan sneered.

"That's not what I meant. We at 51.com have never been involved in the gaming business and don't have much experience." Pang Shengdong explained quickly, "I'm afraid I can't do it well."

"It doesn't matter. I will send someone to guide you when the time comes." Zhou Yuan said casually, "There will be people to train you from technology to operations."

"That's good, that's good." Pang Shengdong breathed a sigh of relief and immediately became excited.

Campus Network is well-known in the gaming business. Its game “Warring States OL” is extremely popular now. Campus Network was able to be listed on NASDAQ directly with just one online game.

In terms of gaming experience and technology, Campus Network can be considered T0 in the industry, not to mention that its boss Qin Shaoyan is recognized as the world's number one game designer.

With his help, 51.com is about to take off.

If 51.com can successfully enter the gaming business, it will have its own ability to generate revenue, and it will no longer have to be criticized by venture capital institutions.

As long as there is money to be made, venture capital firms will shut up, and by the way, they can also have the funds to consolidate their own users.

The opportunity before us is not only a game cooperation, it is also a great tonic.

"Mr. Zhou, when are we going to sign the contract?" Pang Shengdong couldn't wait and started rubbing his hands.

……

Zhou Yuan returned to the company with a happy face, and reported to Qin Shaoyan in person.

"Boss Qin, we've settled the matter with 51.com. Pang Shengdong readily agreed to cooperate."

"Very good." Qin Shaoyan nodded with satisfaction. "51.com's user traffic is still very good. This is a big blood bag."

51.com sucked a lot of blood from QQ and had a large number of users. It was still at its peak at that time and had not yet been targeted by Penguin. In Qin Shaoyan's eyes, it still had considerable value.

Even if 51.com cannot provide much traffic to Happy Farm, it can still be used on Weibo.

No one can have too much traffic.

Zhou Yuan couldn't help but say, "Boss Qin, are we really going to help 51.com run its games? Isn't that a bit too generous?"

Qin Shaoyan smiled and said, "Are you worried that raising a tiger might cause trouble?"

"No, no." Zhou Yuan shook his head quickly, "Boss Qin must have your reasons for doing this."

"The use of 51.com." Qin Shaoyan said casually, "Its positioning is different from that of the campus network. You are responsible for the client games, and they focus on web games. It can also be regarded as opening up another source of income for the campus network."

"What's more, it might even cause some trouble for the penguins."

Zhou Yuan nodded, not quite understanding what was going on. Then he asked curiously, "Boss Qin, what kind of game do you plan to have 51.com make? Or a social game that fosters development?"

"No." Qin Shaoyan replied, "I asked them to make a web version of Legend, which will definitely be a hit."

"Web version of Legend?" Zhou Yuan was very surprised. "Will this... infringe copyright?"

In fact, what he wanted to say was that the client version of "Legend" is still quite popular, and it is a bit redundant to make a web version of Legend. Who would play it?

"It's okay. We will buy the license from Shanda when the time comes." Qin Shaoyan replied, "Shanda will definitely not look down on Web Legend. It will be cheaper if we buy it now."

Web games were still very profitable until 2016. At that time, smartphones had been widely popularized and the mobile Internet boom had emerged. Client games were gradually declining, but web games were still able to persist, which shows their strong vitality.

In the early stages of web game development, the cost of acquiring a user was only 2009 or 9.9 cents in , while the market size was million yuan.

By 2010, this figure will reach 14.7 billion yuan. The cost of acquiring a user has risen to two yuan. Two years later, it has become five to six yuan, or even ten yuan.

In 2016, the cost of acquiring a user reached one hundred yuan. It is amazing that there are still people making web games even with such a high cost of buying traffic.

As soon as Zhou Yuan left, Edward came in to report, "Boss, I talked to Li Xingping, the boss of 4399."

"How is it?" Qin Shaoyan asked.

"It's not going very smoothly, but Li Xingping is still very interested." Edward replied, "I don't think there will be any major problems in the follow-up."

"Try to get it as soon as possible." Qin Shaoyan urged, "Tell Li Xingping that the cooperation is the most favorable now. If he is not willing, I will find someone else."

"He's a smart man, he won't refuse."

In addition to creating the famous website 4399, Li Xingping's first work is even more famous, which is hao123.

Later, he sold hao1190 to Baidu for RMB 4 million and 123 shares of Baidu stock. He was 25 years old that year, one year older than Qin Shaoyan.

Li Xingping, who has a junior high school education and started out as a network administrator, can be said to be a complete winner in life. After selling hao123, he founded 4399, specializing in the gaming field.

4399 is also an important part of the future web game business, so it is important to take over this website as soon as possible to facilitate subsequent layout.

Qin Shaoyan has no shortage of funds now, but he lacks time and traffic.

(End of this chapter)