Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 190: First-Hand Effect
“Energy drinks are beverages that contain certain stimulants and are designed to increase energy, relieve fatigue, and improve concentration for people who exercise or work.”

"This drink is popular in Southeast Asia, and there are hundreds of similar manufacturers of all sizes in Thailand alone."

"You can send someone to Thailand to acquire some energy drink formulas."

"Then we refer to the Austrian Red Bull, which also obtained the formula in Thailand, and make similar products."

"I am very optimistic about the energy drink market. This is a drink that caters to the needs of people who work overtime and is destined to be a big seller."

The Xu family, the founder of Red Bull drinks, belongs to a very lucky family.

Who would have thought that an energy drink brand that is not even number one in the domestic Thai market.

It actually relied on cooperation with the Austrians to become the world's most famous energy drink brand in the future.

But for now, Red Bull is still just a small local brand.

In the past life, it was not until 1992 that the Austrian Red Bull officially went abroad and became popular all over the world.

Matsumoto Manufacturing has plenty of time to develop its presence in the energy drink market, thus replacing Red Bull's previous position.

“However, it should be noted that foreign manufacturers have already noticed the energy drink market.”

"So when you purchase the formula, you must be careful to avoid exposing our purpose in Thailand."

In addition to his own production, Masato Takeshita is also planning to invest in Red Bull companies in Austria and Thailand.

This is double insurance.

However, for confidentiality reasons, the investment in the two Red Bull companies will have to wait until the energy drinks manufactured by Matsumoto are officially put into production and launched on the market.

In this way, even if Red Bull wants to expand into the international market, it will take some time to adjust.

"Thailand region, energy drinks, Red Bull?"

"OK, I see."

"I immediately arranged for someone to secretly go to Thailand to acquire the energy drink formula, and also purchased Red Bull products from Thailand and Austria to conduct research and development on the formula."

A lot of articles from all over the world.

The same is true in the food industry.

The reason why many beverages are popular all over the world is not because of their unique recipes, but because they started early.

Pepsi has conducted a similar experiment.

The company put its own Pepsi and Coca-Cola together, and it turned out that most people couldn't tell the difference between the two.

The reason why Pepsi and Coca-Cola are popular all over the world is entirely due to their technological process and financial victory.

For the same can of Coke, my production cost is lower than yours.

In addition, the two major colas already have very high brand awareness.

If this trend continues in the long run, cola producers other than Pepsi and Coca-Cola will naturally be eliminated.

If the energy drinks manufactured by Matsumoto can be launched in Japan, the United States, Western Europe and other regions, they can be launched before Red Bull drinks.

Then there is more than 95% probability that it will replace Red Bull's position in the previous life and become the number one in the energy drink field.

"Yes, there are also sports drinks. These are drinks that supplement vitamins and minerals and are basically harmless to the body. We should also try to produce them."

“Sports drinks may not be as good as energy drinks, but they are also a good addition to the beverage business.”

Sports drinks are a niche type of beverage, but they also occupy a place in the global beverage market.

In his previous life, Masato Takeshita drank a sports drink called Pulse.

The taste wasn’t very good and I wasn’t sure if it was effective, but out of curiosity I still tried it a few times.

"Yes, President!"

Looking at Kobayashi Hiroaki who was recording seriously, Masato Takeshita simply told out all the types of drinks he knew in one breath.

"Tea beverages should also be our research and development direction."

"Especially iced black tea and iced green tea, there is definitely a huge market in East Asia and Southeast Asia."

Drinks such as oolong tea are popular in Japan, while iced black tea and iced green tea are popular in China.

Especially the iced black tea, which is a classic of the generation.

For many young men and women working in Internet cafes, the most common items they buy are iced black tea and two large bottles of Coke.

Even the equally famous Sprite cannot catch up with iced tea in sales.

"Hi, got it!"

"Ah."

Masato Takeshita nodded, and then added: "It is difficult to develop the food and beverage industry from scratch. You can acquire a medium-sized beverage company in Japan."

"This will speed up our research and development a lot."

At this point, the young man paused for a moment, then took a sip of black tea and continued, "The Chinese instant noodle market is also doing very well right now."

"You can also buy an instant noodle brand and then target it specifically for the Chinese market, just like fried chicken and burgers."

"As for beverages, the Chinese market can take a little time. Once beverage companies have developed to a certain level in Japan, it won't be too late to invest and build factories in China."

In the 90s, China's instant noodle market became extremely popular and soon became the world's largest instant noodle market.

Beverages came a little later, not until the 21st century, did they become the world's most important market.

Even if Matsumoto Manufacturing started to enter the Chinese beverage market in the 90s, it would still be in time.

Of course, not investing directly in building a factory does not mean ignoring the Chinese beverage market.

Masato Takeshita's target is currently the most well-known beverage brand in China - Jianlibao.

The founder of Jianlibao is Li Jinwei, an outstanding entrepreneur.

In 1973, he became the director of the Sanshui Brewery, which was on the verge of bankruptcy. Then, relying on his outstanding management skills, he quickly brought this small brewery with only a few rice wine jars back to life, and miraculously also built a beer production line.

In 1982, by chance.

He met a professor named Ouyang Xiao.

The professor is developing a new carbonated beverage.

The two like-minded people soon expressed their intention to cooperate.

Li Jinwei used the meager profits of the winery to support Professor Ouyang's research and development work.

Ouyang Xiao lived up to expectations and quickly developed a sports drink that combines multiple features such as taste, nutrition, and trace elements.

Now that we have a product, how do we launch it on the market?
You know, at that time, Sanshui Winery was simply unable to support the launch of new products.

But the reason why capable people are capable is that they can do extraordinary things.

In 1983, the AFC held a meeting in Yangcheng, and Li Jinwei realized that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for exposure.

After quickly completing the brand registration and other work, he used his connections to present 200 boxes of Jianlibao at the AFC meeting.

And on the day of the meeting, when the AFC President picked up the Jianlibao and was about to drink it, he asked reporters to take a few photos in advance.

At that time, football was the number one sport in China and the AFC meeting attracted the attention of football fans all over China.

Jianlibao, a beverage that had no official name a few days ago, suddenly became famous.

That’s right, the name Jianlibao was thought up by Li Jinwei on the spur of the moment after he learned that the AFC was going to hold a meeting.

In fact, not only the name, but even the beverage bottle was temporarily borrowed by him from PepsiCo in the Special Administrative Region.

The route is to get something for nothing.

But Li Jinwei succeeded, so he became a legendary entrepreneur.

Later, Li Jinwei went a step further and, relying on the reputation of Jianlibao, directly started the most popular OEM production model in the future.

Since I can't afford a production line, I'll ask other companies to help me with the production.

In this way, Jianlibao was under the command of Li Jinwei.

Not only has it become a nationally renowned brand, it has also officially gone into production.

But this is not the most amazing thing. Li Jinwei knew very well that at that time, Chinese people had a very strong mentality of worshipping foreign things and selling out foreign things.

He took advantage of the 84 Los Angeles Olympics to vigorously promote in China that Americans love Jianlibao very much and called Jianlibao the magic water of the East.

In this way, Jianlibao gradually became a national beverage.

During its most glorious era, the 90s, Jianlibao had become synonymous with Chinese beverages.

It is not only the sales leader in the beverage market, but also the sales leader in the beverage industry including all types of alcoholic beverages.

What a shame for such a brilliant enterprise.

In the end, it came to an end due to problems such as restructuring.

In this life, Masato Takeshita wanted to take advantage of the rise of Jianlibao to develop his own company into a giant in China's retail food industry.

I also want to try to change Jianlibao and change Li Jinwei's tragic fate.

However, Masato Takeshita plans to do this himself.

So he didn't tell Kobayashi Hiroaki right away, but just kept it in mind.

After chatting with Hiroaki Kobayashi about the future development direction of Matsumoto Manufacturing, Masato Takeshita rushed to Xinghai Games.

"Very good, but in terms of skills, the combo system must be improved."

"There must not be one or two sets, or even a dead character."

"There shouldn't be a bug where characters can connect infinitely."

“In addition, the role balance should be as good as possible.”

"It can't be reduced to a wave-generating game like the first generation."

"This is a battle game that focuses on players fighting against each other. If the character balance is too poor, it will discourage players from trying out different characters."

Masato Takeshita tried to play the demo of "Street Fighter 2", which is the demonstration version of the game.

It feels pretty good and the operation is relatively smooth.

The bigger problem is that some characters' combo abilities are too strong and their damage values are exaggerated.

Adjustments must be made to make the roles more fair.

He didn't want the game to end up as a civil war between several identical characters.

Street Fighter 2 needs special attention, but other games should not be left behind.

In the next hour or so, Masato Takeshita learned all the games.

Those who have tried the game can do so, and then based on their own gaming experience, put forward suggestions for how to better improve the game.

For those who haven’t tried the game yet, learn about the development progress and encourage employees’ enthusiasm for development.

"Outside, or in the cafeteria?"

"Let's go to the cafeteria. I'm too lazy to run back and forth."

A major feature of Xinghai Group is that every company has a cafeteria.

Try to help everyone save wages while ensuring employee food safety.

"Give me a set meal of pork cutlet rice and fried shrimp tempura."

"Well, I'll have the same meal, too."

"OK, just a second."

The food was served quickly in the cafeteria. In about 5 minutes, two people carried the delicious set meals to the small private room where the leaders ate.

Setting up a small room just for leaders is not to reflect privilege, but is a reasonable consideration of the different needs of both parties.

On the one hand, when leaders eat with employees, the employees usually feel uncomfortable, and the leaders will also feel awkward indirectly.

It's just torture between each other.

On the other hand, leaders often discuss business while eating, and much of the content is not suitable for employees to hear.

"President, do you have any ideas for a new game?"

"Well, there is indeed a game design proposal that I think is very good. Let's talk about it after we have lunch and return to the office."

The game that Masato Takeshita prepared today is an elimination game designed with reference to the previous life's "Dr. Mario".

The game "Dr. Mario", based on "Tetris", has its own unique features and has had a great impact on later generations.

The reference source for later Match 3 games is basically "Dr. Mario".

Most importantly, the sales of this game are very good, and it is a top casual game with total sales exceeding 10 million.

"Oh, you are worthy of being the president."

Rogers was a little surprised. He didn't expect that the president actually had it when he just asked casually.

"That's right. I'm a gamer, and I always think about games."

"That is, the hardware doesn't support it now. If it does, I can definitely design a game that will impact the whole world."

"Dr. Mario" and "Snow Brothers" are indeed classics.

But compared with PC competitive games such as CS, DOTA, LOL, PUBG, and console games such as GTA, Black Myth, and Call of Duty, there is still a lot of room for improvement.

Only the Mario series can rival or surpass these games.

In fact, the game that Masato Takeshita wants to make most right now is "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

This was his favorite arcade game, and even after arcades disappeared, he would still occasionally play a few rounds on the computer.

Masato Takeshita really wanted to know whether this game, which was released a few years earlier, could become popular in markets other than the Chinese-speaking regions.

Unfortunately, current chips do not support this, and we will probably have to wait until the 90s to realize this dream.

Speaking of which, the current arcade machines have a very bad setting.

That is the second BOSS in the horizontal scrolling game, which is usually very difficult to defeat.

"Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms" is the most typical case.

Xiahou Yuan in the second level is extremely strong, and is not inferior to the big BOSS in the later stage.

I don’t know how many players died at the hands of Xiahou Yuan’s “unknown guy”.

The purpose is to make players spend more game coins.

"How is the branch in the United States developing now?"

"Not bad. Both the PC department and the console department were established very quickly."

Although Japan is currently the world's gaming center, the United States has more talent.

In addition, the mobility of talent in the United States is far greater than that in Japan, so the establishment of the branch was very smooth.

However, this is different from Japan where consoles are the main focus, with arcades and PCs as supplementary.

In the United States, under the insistence of Masato Takeshita, a development strategy that gave equal importance to consoles and PCs was implemented.

"The United States is still better. As long as the salary is high, we can recruit the people we need."

“That’s true, but it also makes it easier for companies to fall apart.”

"Makes sense."

The Japanese model and the American model both have their own advantages and disadvantages.

However, for enterprises, the Japanese model is more friendly.

Games are creative works, and the departure of core personnel may very likely lead to the decline of the game company.

The most typical case in the previous life was Blizzard.

As the initial founding staff continued to leave, Blizzard became completely reduced to a vassal of the Activision part of Activision Blizzard.

After "Overwatch", there has been no more amazing gaming products.

(End of this chapter)