Restart life

Chapter 384, page 0374: [Youke has become the third largest online game company in China]

When Chen Guiliang left the United States, speculators were already dead everywhere.

There is no free market anywhere.

Those who shorted the market, whether through stock index futures or put options, all received a heavy blow from the US government.

Due to the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued an emergency "short-selling ban" on September 18, prohibiting short selling of 799 financial institutions, and quickly expanded the list to 950.

Wall Street giants colluded to create chaos, and with government intervention, bailout information, and a technical rebound after a sharp drop, the US stock market experienced a rapid and fierce rebound.

The day after the ban was announced, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite rose by 3.62%, 4.41%, and 4.49%, respectively. The following day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average even surged by more than 800 points in a single day.

A huge number of short sellers were liquidated!
After three consecutive days of gains, the US stock market plunged again.

On October 3, the US passed a $700 billion bailout bill, and the market surged in early trading that day, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average soaring more than 300 points in half a day.

A large number of speculators, expecting a repeat of the previous situation, rushed to buy. However, the price fell back in the afternoon, and plummeted the following day…

Another mass margin call, leaving everyone in despair.

Upon hearing the news, Chen Guiliang was so shocked that he broke out in a cold sweat.

Fortunately, he wasn't greedy and didn't keep throwing money into it.

He was just a nobody, following the crowd to short Lehman Brothers, making a quick buck and running away, without even attracting much attention.

If Chen Guiliang had jumped in earlier, he would probably have suffered even greater losses, because the U.S. SEC has issued short-selling bans more than once. Moreover, Lehman Brothers' stock price would occasionally rebound, which was actually Wall Street giants repeatedly profiting from it.

When the plane landed in Beijing, Chen Guiliang felt a little guilty.

He doesn't usually do anything illegal or criminal, but this time he did break the law, the charge being "unauthorized alteration of foreign exchange use".

Chen Guiliang couldn't even bring the millions of dollars he earned from short selling back to China directly.

If you want to bring it back, you'll have to accept the penalty, which is up to 20% of the repatriated amount. It will also be recorded, making future approvals more stringent.

Therefore, it can only remain in the US account for now.

After a while, when ByteDance's stock price drops further, Chen Guiliang will use that money to buy his own company's stock.

……

"Hey, Guan Guan, I'm almost out."

"I'm at the arrivals gate."

Chen Guiliang looked up and examined the area closely, and soon saw a beautiful woman waving.

He strode over and gave her a hug, then took out a gift he had brought back from the United States.

"What is it?" Bian Guanyue asked in surprise.

Chen Guiliang said, "Let's open it and take a look."

The packaging bag had the Cartier logo, and Bian Guanyue thought it was jewelry, but when she took it out, she found it was a watch.

It's studded with rubies and diamonds, all sparkly and glossy—girls love that kind of thing.

Bian Guanyue smiled and kissed him on the cheek: "Thank you."

When the economic crisis hit, LV and Chanel quickly raised prices to maintain their brand image.

Chen Guiliang didn't indulge them and bought a Cartier watch whose price hadn't changed much.

There are two more gifts in the suitcase, for Tao Xue and Xu Fengyin. They'll be temporarily placed in Yang Shuo's suitcase.

"Is America fun?" Bian Guanyue asked.

Chen Guiliang said, "I'm on business this time, so I don't have much time to stroll around. I'll take you with me next time when I'm less busy."

Bian Guanyue said, "A while ago, my dad called to praise you, saying that you have a very good eye for talent."

"I just guessed," Chen Guiliang said.

Bian Jingsong was truly astonished this time, as Chen Guiliang's prediction was absolutely accurate.

Like a wise man after the event, Bian Jinsong carefully reviewed various information from this year and discovered that there had been clues all along.

Back in January, Wang Shitou put forward the "turning point theory," and Vanke began to offer discounts and promotions.

At the time, no one believed it, thinking it was the government's macro-control, which had been going on for several years.

In March, Evergrande postponed its IPO plan, which was widely attributed to a slight economic downturn.

By September, real estate developers finally realized something was wrong.

Lehman Brothers hadn't even gone bankrupt yet, and houses in China were already sluggish to sell—and this was supposed to be the "golden September" of the traditional peak season.

The Chinese government, which had been suppressing the real estate market, quickly shifted to supporting it, lowering loan interest rates to encourage people to buy homes.

Chen Guiliang said, "Your dad also called me and said that he won't be opening any new housing developments for the next six months. Fortunately, there aren't many unsold units from the previous projects. He's always been quite cautious, so it wouldn't have been a big problem even without my reminder."

In the blink of an eye, we arrived at the taxi stand.

Yang Shuo sat in the front passenger seat, while Chen Guiliang and Bian Guanyue sat in the back.

“I plan to take some time to get my driver’s license. That way, when neither you nor Yang Shuo have a car, I can drive to pick you up,” Bian Guanyue said.

Chen Guiliang smiled and said, "Sure, have you signed up?"

Bian Guanyue said, "Not yet."

Chen Guiliang said, "I'll accompany you when you practice driving for the third stage of the driving test."

"It's a deal, no excuses to run away." Bian Guanyue became even more clingy than before, perhaps provoked by Tao Xue. The two chatted all the way home, but Yang Shuo got off halfway to meet his girlfriend.

Chen Guiliang was extremely sleepy, but planned to stay up until night to adjust to the time difference as quickly as possible.

After spending some more time with Bian Guanyue, he went to the study, turned on the computer, and browsed various domestic information.

Read the financial news first, then the gaming news.

The economic crisis has caused everything to slump, but the online gaming market is booming.

Chen Guiliang was drawn to the headline on Sina Games Channel: "Major Changes in China's Online Game Industry: Youke is About to Surpass NetEase."

The top-ranked companies in the Chinese online game market share in the second quarter of this year were: Shanda, NetEase, The9, Giant Interactive, Bailian, Youke, Tencent, Sohu, Perfect World, and 9game.

In the most profitable third quarter (summer vacation), the market share of online games has just been tallied, and the rankings have already seen huge changes.

It has now become: Shanda, NetEase, Youke, Tencent, Sohu, 9City, Giant, Bailian, Perfect World, 9Game.

Damn it, I went to America and You Ke became the third-ranked person?
Qu Guohao and the others didn't even call to say anything.

NineCity, which had been guarding the goldmine of "World of Warcraft", has surprisingly plummeted to sixth place.

Youke ranks third, naturally thanks to "Future Era" and "Three Kingdoms Kill".

Due to the sharp drop in computer prices this year, the number of home computer users has increased rapidly, and these are precisely the main customers of "Three Kingdoms Kill". Furthermore, the launch of a web version of "Three Kingdoms Kill" allows many white-collar workers to play it even while catching up during work hours.

The revenue of "Three Kingdoms Kill" reached 9100 million yuan in the third quarter of this year!

This is a case of accumulating strength for several years and then suddenly unleashing it.

Youke is about to surpass NetEase, and this is not just clickbait.

《未来纪元》7月份的营收1亿多，8月份搞奥运活动营收突破2亿，9月份的营收又降到1.8个亿。

The Chinese online game market size in the third quarter was just over 50 billion yuan. With just "Future Era" and "Three Kingdoms Kill," Youke captured 12.6% of the market share.

NetEase's market share is only 13.2%, and it's really about to be overtaken by Youke.

As for Tencent ranking fourth, it's because "CF" was a huge hit during the summer vacation, and a whole bunch of other games in the QQ series were making money.

Sohu ranks fifth, of course, because of "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils" and its status as the exclusive online sponsor of the Olympics!
Chen Guiliang slept soundly that night and went on a trip to the science park the next day in a good mood.

"I'm coming!"

An employee who was standing guard in the corridor saw Chen Guiliang appear and immediately rushed back to the company shouting.

"Clap clap clap!"

As soon as Chen Guiliang entered the company, he heard a burst of enthusiastic applause.

Qu Guohao, along with several department heads, stood at the front applauding and welcoming them, while other employees stood around on the periphery.

"Damn, what are you guys doing?" Chen Guiliang laughed.

Dong Qianqiu said, "You don't know yet? Youke has become the third largest player in the market. We didn't even call to tell you, we were just waiting for you to come back and give you a surprise!"

Qu Guohao said, "In this joyous occasion, Mr. Chen, please say a few words to everyone."

Since the company got on the right track, Chen Guiliang doesn't usually like to get hyped up.

But since everyone was gathered together, he had to say a few encouraging words: "I'm not usually at the company. Youke has grown from just two or three people to 500 people thanks to everyone's concerted efforts and hard work... Words can't do it justice. At the end of this year, everyone will receive an extra two months' salary on top of their existing performance bonuses!"

"Long live President Chen!"

The whole crowd cheered, this time with genuine enthusiasm.

Only the finance department was dumbfounded. Damn it, if everyone gets two extra months' salary, several million yuan will just disappear.

In fact, Youke's compensation has always been very good. Depending on the employee's contributions, they receive an extra one to six months' salary at the end of each year. Those with outstanding contributions receive additional bonuses, and some even receive direct game revenue sharing.

Qu Guohao flattered, "President Chen is too modest. Whether it's 'Future Era' or 'Three Kingdoms Kill,' which game wasn't personally finalized by you? Especially 'Three Kingdoms Kill,' you've been in charge of all the general cards up to this point. Let's give President Chen a round of applause to show our sincere respect!"

Upon hearing this, the employees realized it was true and clapped even louder.

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "Stop flattering me, you've had half a day to do your work!"

Qu Guohao said, "The important positions have all been filled, I dare not delay." After saying that, he waved to the crowd, "Disperse, everyone disperse."

Dong Qianqiu followed Chen Guiliang into the office and said in a low voice, "IBM established a cloud computing center in Beijing, and Shanda followed suit by setting up the Shanda Research Institute. Other local governments and enterprises have also successively gotten involved in cloud computing. Chengdu invested 3.5 million yuan, and Guangzhou invested 2 million yuan..."

"Just say it, what do you want?" Chen Guiliang interrupted.

If he hadn't interrupted, Dong Qianqiu could have continued listing examples indefinitely.

Dong Qianqiu said, "Now that I have money, I can also study cloud technology."

Although Dong Qianqiu has always been with Youke, he has long since stopped making games. He is now in charge of all the company's technical departments and personally oversees the Youpay payment platform.

"How much funding do you need?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Dong Qianqiu said, "The first phase is 1 million yuan. Of course, the detailed budget is unclear; it may be more or less."

“Okay,” Chen Guiliang said.

The research on cloud technology in China was a trend started by IBM, and Shanda was the first to announce that it would follow suit.

Alibaba won't enter the fray until next year, but it has already poached a lot of people from Shanda.

-

(The previous chapter raised many questions, and this chapter has answered most of them. If a reborn person is too greedy, like those who went to the US to short sell in 2008, nine out of ten would have failed miserably. Unless they could clearly remember all the detailed data for every single day.)
(To put it simply, take Millennium Hedge Fund, where Huang Wenzheng works. From its inception until the pandemic, in over 30 years, it only suffered losses in 2008. Professionals know how to short sell, and everyone can see the overall trend, but in practice, they all make mistakes because the stock market is constantly fluctuating wildly.)
(End of this chapter)