Since we are both reborn, of course I would choose the rich woman!

Chapter 314 The Boss is Too Cautious (6k views, please subscribe)

Each generation has its own sense of the times. However, in the process of the times rolling forward, some people are able to keenly sense the pulse of the times before most people and gain something from them.

Li Qiuwen is the kind of person who has a keen sense of the times.

After she graduated from university, her family originally planned to arrange for her to work in the county government, so that she would gradually become a "Brahmin" in the county.

Li Qiuwen's parents had the means to make such an arrangement. They owned a factory in a county in the southern part of the province, and they also had relatives who worked within the system. She could obtain a highly desirable position that even graduate students would struggle to get into ten years later through a relatively easy means.

But Li Qiuwen didn't want that kind of life. The world is so big, and if she followed her parents' planned path, she would gradually drift further and further away from the wonderful world outside.

So before graduation, she kept thinking about what she should do in the future.

In her reflection, she keenly realized that the internet was the main trend for future development. Although she herself had no talent in technology and could not possibly build an internet technology company, the increasingly legitimate and standardized influencer economy in recent years gave Li Qiuwen an opportunity.

After comparing several options, Li Qiuwen ultimately chose Lü Yao's MCN company.

Although there have been cases of influencer marketing in China for a long time, Lü Yao's MCN company is still the first formal "multi-channel network media company" in China with legal and compliant procedures. With experience from the future, Lü Yao's MCN company is also very formalized in its operation.

So after joining Lü Yao's MCN company, Li Qiuwen really didn't have any other thoughts; she was purely there to build her career.

But now, Li Qiuwen has some different thoughts. She suddenly feels that her boss seems very reliable and trustworthy. Although he is not much older than her, he can see through a lot of things.

Even the words that described a terrible future to her earlier, and even those that were vaguely threatening, made Li Qiuwen feel exceptionally at ease at this moment.

So when Lü Yao asked Li Qiuwen if she was willing to help him, Li Qiuwen agreed almost without thinking.

Then Li Qiuwen saw him take out his phone, turn on the front camera, and while filming her and Li Qiuwen, he said, "Before we start, I'm recording this for posterity."

As he spoke, Lü Yao stood next to Li Qiuwen, making sure that Li Qiuwen and Lü Yao appeared together in the phone screen.

Then Lü Yao asked, "I'm currently filming a promotional video. Ms. Li Qiuwen, do you agree to me doing this?"

Li Qiuwen paused for a moment, then nodded and said, "I agree."

Lu Yao then asked, "Was there any threat or inducement behind your agreement to do this?"

Li Qiuwen was speechless: "No."

But Lu Yao's inquiries did not stop. He asked several more questions after these, looking just like a mage buffing himself, only feeling safe to fight his opponent when he was fully buffed.

After stacking all his buffs, Lü Yao said, "As a manager of the company, I've noticed through Li Qiuwen that there might be some bad apples in the company. So I'd like to ask Ms. Li Qiuwen for help in eliminating these bad apples. Ms. Li Qiuwen, would you be willing to help me?"

Li Qiuwen was already a little numb, but she still said, "I'm willing."

Lu Yao took his phone, opened the car door, and sat in the driver's seat. He then kept himself and Li Qiuwen in the same frame at all times. After Li Qiuwen sat in the passenger seat, the two were in a separate, enclosed space, with the phone camera serving as a witness.

Li Qiuwen was speechless: "Boss, is it really necessary to do this?"

She really felt that her boss was being far too cautious, to the point of being speechless. Wasn't this a clear sign that he didn't trust her?

Lu Yao, however, held up his phone and said, "I know you might think this is a sign that I don't trust you, but you should also understand that after you were persuaded to come here, I had to react this way; it was necessary. It's always better to be cautious first and then act decisively to avoid a lot of trouble."

"Don't refrain from doing things just because you feel embarrassed. Saving face is something you should do in certain situations, but otherwise it's just being stubborn about saving face."

These principles may sound simple and straightforward, but few people can actually put them into practice.

When I was young, I would argue with people online about games, and sometimes we would start to challenge each other to a solo match just to save face. If I lost, I would get so angry that I wanted to smash the mouse and keyboard.

Even in middle age, there are many examples of people getting into heated arguments over a few words.

Lu Yao laughed and said, "When you can put aside your pride for the sake of practical benefits, you will have learned a lot more."

Although it was a lecture, Lü Yao's lecturing didn't come across as overly paternalistic.

Li Qiuwen glanced at Lü Yao beside her and saw him leaning back in the driver's seat with a relaxed and comfortable expression, casually saying these words that contained a bit of wisdom, as if he wanted to teach her, or as if it were a casual chat between friends.

"So this is what it feels like to be alone with your boss!"

Li Qiuwen was lost in thought again.

A dozen minutes later, Lü Yao said to Li Qiuwen in the passenger seat, "It's almost time. After you get out of the car, if the people who instigated you ask questions, just act like something happened between us."

"Then you don't have to worry about it."

Li Qiuwen is not stupid; in fact, she can be considered intelligent. However, she was well protected from a young age, which has led to a lack of awareness of the treacherous and vicious nature of society.

She understood what Lü Yao meant, so her face flushed slightly, but she still nodded seriously and said, "I know what to say, but... is it really okay to not care about anything?"

Lü Yao laughed and said, "They'll just walk right into it and get themselves killed."

Although it's unknown whether the internet celebrity couple who instigated and instigated Li Qiuwen had other backers or orchestrated the scheme, since they had already instigated Li Qiuwen, they certainly wouldn't be able to hold back.

After discussing it with Li Qiuwen, Lü Yao said, "Alright, you should get off the bus now."

"Make your clothes look messy, and make your performance more realistic."

Li Qiuwen was speechless.

"Does it have to be this real?" At this moment, Li Qiuwen even felt that Lü Yao was being a bit too performative.

But if you're not clean and efficient when you're out doing business, you won't even be considered respectable, let alone serve at the table.

Lu Yao looked up at the surveillance camera outside the parking lot: "What if someone wants to look at the camera outside? By the way, you can also explain that I took out my phone to film an indecent video if anyone asks you about it."

Li Qiuwen's lips trembled slightly, but she nodded and said, "Okay."

After Li Qiuwen got out of the car, she leaned against the door for a moment, and then walked out of the car with slightly unsteady steps. Lu Yao sat in the driver's seat and watched Li Qiuwen's departing figure, and laughed.

Indeed, women are born actresses.

Putting his thoughts aside, Lü Yao raised his elbow and rested it on the armrest, rubbing his chin as he pondered in his mind.

Is there anyone else behind Li Qiuwen orchestrating this?

Whether there are people around or not doesn't matter... what matters is that Li Qiuwen's timing for appearing this time was quite good.

……

With the end of the college entrance examination and the arrival of summer vacation, July 2016 has come as scheduled.

With the start of summer vacation across the country, the enthusiasm in the video game consumer market has gradually been released, and the performance of major game companies has improved to varying degrees. The upward curve of performance at the end of June has prompted major game companies to go all out to make money.

However, among all the game developers, Tencent was not so happy.

Because their most popular game IP, League of Legends, which dominated the PC gaming market for years, was surpassed by Guang'an Network Games' PUBG last month.

Meanwhile, the game "Ass Vanguard," launched by NetEase in May of this year, has also begun to expand its territory in the PC game market. Cool derivative characters such as Hanzo, Tracer, and Widowmaker have begun to shine on the entire network, attracting a large number of lewd players.

Fan art and 3D art began to appear.

It's unclear whether this was a spontaneous action by players or a low-down marketing tactic by NetEase.

In short.

Faced with attacks from both NetEase and Tencent, Tencent's League of Legends, which had been popular for five years, was finally defeated in terms of data.

According to Shunwang's statistics on game popularity in June, "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" ranked first by a narrow margin, "League of Legends" came in second, "Dungeon Fighter Online" was third, "CrossFire" was fourth, and "Overwatch", which was launched at the end of May, was fifth.

According to the current rankings, two of the top three games on Shunwang's game popularity chart are from Tencent, and three of the top five are from Tencent.

But "Butt Vanguard" is coming on strong and may break into the top three in another two months.

At that point, Tencent will only have League of Legends left to keep things going.

So how has Tencent performed in the mobile game sector?
It's not entirely satisfactory!

Tencent's operations lack long-term operational capabilities, and its innovation is even more lacking. With Feng Ji and Yao Qiguang being poached by Lü Yao, Tencent has technical strength but cannot implement it.

As the "ninth art," games represent the culmination of all human audiovisual art enjoyment.

A game that is visually appealing can be created by combining elements such as color, style, music, combat feel, and even cultural content.

Lü Yao had eaten chaff.

Putting aside other aspects, just in the MOBA mobile game genre, although Tencent's "Honor of Kings" makes more money than Tencent's "League of Legends," in terms of artistic expression, audiovisual effects, and even the feel of the gameplay, "League of Legends Mobile" is far superior to "Honor of Kings."

This is also why many players quit playing "Honor of Kings" after playing "League of Legends Mobile".

Because once the enjoyment threshold is raised, the previously addictive but low-quality "Honor of Kings" can no longer immerse them in it.

The difference is like how browser game players can't go back to playing World of Warcraft after trying it. Comparing Guang'an's Honor of Kings with Tencent's Hero Moment is like comparing World of Warcraft with browser games.

Actually, it's clear that Tencent's "Hero Moment" put in effort, and even its art style is somewhat copied from Guang'an's "Honor of Kings." However, the hollow character backstories, the boring character designs, the use of "League of Legends" skill mechanics, and the slightly inferior controls, among other subtle differences, make it feel less enjoyable to play than Guang'an's "Honor of Kings."

Therefore, even with the added advantage of a strong social system, Tencent's "Hero Moment" still failed to dominate the PC game market.

On the contrary, the mobile game "Battlegrounds", which was copied from Guang'an Network Games, became a little popular thanks to the popularity of Lü Yao, and the number of players is actually rising steadily.

However, with the introduction of a brand-new treasure-hunting gameplay by Lü Yao, many mobile game players from Tencent have flocked to Guang'an's "PUBG" this summer.

After all, you can make money playing PUBG on Guang'an!

If you're lucky enough to land a large order, you can earn more in a day than you would with a summer job.

The constant fluctuations in traffic over just two months caused hardship for domestic game developers, but made the summer of 2016 exceptionally interesting and lively.

Years later, when these students look back, they will probably sigh and say, "Back in the day."

The dire situation in the domestic gaming industry prompted Tencent to hold numerous internal high-level meetings. Teng, who was personally overseeing the Interactive Entertainment Business Group, ordered them to find a way to break the deadlock as soon as possible. This task was ultimately handed over to Ren Zhengfei, the CEO of the Interactive Entertainment Business Group.

Teng, meanwhile, temporarily withdrew and began to mobilize resources to prepare for a battle with ByteDance on the other side.

Although ByteDance's short video craze during the last May Day holiday has kept the BAT companies relatively quiet, among the three, Tencent is actually the most anxious.

Among the three major internet companies, BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent), only Alibaba and Tencent have been locked in fierce competition for many years, burning through a huge amount of money.

As for Baidu...

The skeletons in the tomb are not really a big deal to Tencent and Alibaba.

With its strong e-commerce and financial foundations, Alibaba has been gaining momentum in recent years and has become a top-tier (T0) internet company in China.

Although Tencent currently maintains its position as one of the internet giants thanks to its investments and social networking business, its position is actually not as stable as Alibaba's.

In the short term, it is difficult for any e-commerce platform to rival Taobao and Tmall, but Tencent's social networking system can be replaced relatively easily.

This impression was a deep one left on Teng Zong during the "3Q War".

Teng still vividly remembers 360's trick of copying contacts. The feeling that the empire he had built with his own hands was about to collapse in just one week still wakes him up in a cold sweat every time he thinks about it.

However, Alibaba's risk control system, powerful transaction processing servers, and integration of online merchant resources across the country are things that other domestic e-commerce platforms cannot achieve in a short period of time.

This judgment is correct.

JD.com is currently being severely suppressed by Taobao-affiliated platforms.

If Alibaba Cloud hadn't been so arrogant on the Bund two years later, Pinduoduo and Douyin Mall wouldn't have been able to gain momentum so easily. Even if these two companies poured money into it, they would at most only have a similar status to JD.com.

But it is precisely because penguins have a better awareness of risk control and a deeper understanding of reality that they have gone further and more steadily.

However, these days, Mr. Teng hasn't been sleeping well.

What's even more upsetting is that, just as he was sharpening his knives and preparing for battle, President Liu came to talk to President Teng.

……

Penguin Park, Chairman's Office.

At this moment, Liu Chiping, who is the president of Tencent, chief strategic investment officer of Tencent, chief executive director of Tencent, chairman of Tencent E-commerce Holdings, and director of Didi Group, came to Tencent's office as chairman of Tencent.

At this moment, even Chairman Teng felt some pressure when he met President Liu.

President Liu, with his numerous honors and positions, is just like Wang Mang of the Han Dynasty, who was "granted the title of king and prime minister, allowed to wear a sword and shoes in the palace, did not have to bow when entering the court, was not called by name when being praised, was given the Nine Bestowments, wore a crown with nine tassels, and was granted the authority to command troops." Even though Tencent is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Tencent, no one dares to challenge his brilliance.

So when President Liu arrived, President Teng immediately stood up to greet him: "Old Liu, come on over."

As he spoke, President Teng led President Liu toward the reception area and then personally made tea for him.

But President Liu was very impolite this time. After a moment of contemplation, he said, "President Teng, I have something very important to discuss with you."

Mr. Teng chuckled and said, "Sit down, have some tea, and let's chat."

President Liu patiently sat down and said, "I know the competition in the internet industry is fierce lately, but I still hold the same view as before, which you also agreed with: the emerging internet startups in China don't necessarily have to become our competitors."

As he spoke, President Liu raised his two fists and clashed them together: "Intense confrontation will only increase the wear and tear on both sides, which is not worth it."

President Liu graduated from the University of Michigan, then completed a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, and an MBA at Northwestern University; he received orthodox capitalist training, and his understanding of company management is closer to the Western world.

So no matter what he did, he couldn't understand why President Teng would invest so much money and resources in this confrontation.

invest!

Integrate!

Then you'll benefit!

Is not it good?
In the domestic market, even if an employee or project can achieve half of the company's performance targets, they will be treated like a beast of burden by the manager. However, in the capital market, if an employee or project has such ability, the manager would be willing to kneel down to them.

President Liu belongs to the latter category.

If ByteDance truly has potential, what they should be doing now is not spending money to create similar products to compete with it, but rather investing the money they would have used for competition back into ByteDance and acquiring shares in the company.

Only in this way can you bring ten or even a hundred times the return on capital in the future.

Facing President Liu, who was speaking eloquently and whose emotions were gradually becoming more and more excited, the native-born President Teng couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

He agreed with President Liu's statement that he did indeed have a deep understanding of business administration, but because of this education, he lacked sufficient knowledge of the domestic environment.

This cognitive deficiency is not unique to President Liu. Ten years later, when international capital plans to buy up shares in the domestic stock market, that group of top international investment elites will experience for the first time what it means to be "set up".

They will find themselves becoming owners of a company owned by the University of Tokyo through their buying spree.

The stocks floating in the stock market seem like an endless supply of water; no matter how much you buy, you can never sell them all.

Blackstone, Bridgewater, BlackRock... no matter how top-tier your venture capital firm is, you'll become a greenhorn at Dongda University.

This difference in mindset is comparable to a mental imprint, especially in 2016 when Western thought was prevalent and seemed superior. These overseas graduates looked down on the rules of the University of Tokyo.

They might even naively believe that true power is based on money.

So President Teng didn't say anything excessive to President Liu. Instead, he calmly and gently said, "Old Liu, I know you're in a hurry, but don't rush."

President Liu sometimes gets really annoyed by President Teng's mild-mannered personality: "We're already halfway through the year, but our group still has a long way to go to achieve our profit target, and the investment budget for the second half of the year is already very tight. And what about you?"

"In terms of games, follow up with Shangnan Guang'an Network, first with MOBA mobile games, then with FPS mobile games. Besides Shangnan Guang'an, you also have to compete with ByteDance, with their billion-dollar subsidy plan and 3 billion-dollar support plan for streaming media information platforms! Okay, these all have successful cases, and I can support you in doing so, which is equivalent to investing in our own company."

"But you're recently relaunching 'Weishi'? And you've even announced plans to invest 5 billion yuan to revive it?"

President Liu frowned: "Our budget is very tight, President Teng!"

President Liu's words were quite impolite, even questioning.

Mr. Teng couldn't help but feel a little flustered. Suddenly, the scene of Emperor Daojun settling accounts with the Yan faction and the Qingliu faction in the TV series "Da Ming Dynasty 1566" flashed into his mind.

At the University of Tokyo, the rule of the game is that power creates everything, but maintaining power itself requires a lot of money.

This moment is just like that moment back then.

While Mr. Teng was distracted, President Liu continued his tirade: "Besides, Weishi is already a business we've tried and failed at. Kuaishou has developed a similar business to this point, and I think its prospects are only so-so. Is it really necessary for you to bet such a big amount on this track?"

Once he came to his senses, President Teng laughed and said, "Fifty billion was just a rumor."

Even for a behemoth like a penguin, it's not easy to come up with 5 billion in cash; the penguin's cash reserves are only around 30 billion.

If all the rumors released are actually confirmed, Tencent's cash flow will become extremely tight.

But President Liu persisted: "Even if the publicity is exaggerated, these actions themselves are reducing external confidence in the group and lowering the company's profits, which is very detrimental to the group's development next year."

Mr. Teng waved his hand and said, "The outside world will have confidence in us."

President Liu frowned, puzzled.

Mr. Teng laughed and said, "Because Mr. Lü from Shangnan has made a very big bet on ByteDance's new product."

As he spoke, President Teng stood up and presented the information report he had gathered to President Liu.

"I trust Mr. Lü's judgment."

(End of this chapter)