Restart life

Chapter 401, page 0391: [Company Showcase]

Since he was already there, Chen Guiliang invited Lei Jun to visit ByteDance and Youke.

Both of these companies, along with Lei Jun's former subordinates, were technical talents recruited by Chen Guiliang.

Of course, the most outstanding one is currently in Chengdu, serving as the head of technical research and development at a cloud computing center.

Lei Jun has a keen eye for observation; he immediately noticed that the employees at ByteDance and Youke were full of energy. This is a unique characteristic of emerging companies in their booming stage, because good performance easily leads to promotions and raises, giving employees from top to bottom a sense of hope and motivation.

If a few more years pass, and the company grows larger and its personnel structure stabilizes, this vitality will gradually fade away.

"Is this your Weibo department?" Lei Jun was quite interested in Weibo.

Chen Guiliang explained, "The resources have been integrated, and it's now called the Wireless Business Department. All mobile network social networking and services are under the responsibility of this department. Although Weibo messages have always been received in the form of SMS and MMS, since the beginning of last year, users have been able to set their preferred content to follow, and related SMS messages will appear directly on their Weibo profile page. Other microblogging companies have followed our lead."

"ByteDance is indeed a leader in microblogging; you guys seem to have started even earlier than Twitter in the US. Your revenue from this must be pretty good, right?" Lei Jun said.

Chen Guiliang didn't say how much he had earned, but simply nodded and said, "Several million Weibo users have to pay a monthly subscription fee every month. Of course, some users may find it too expensive and stop using it after a while."

The rapid development of Weibo has greatly increased ByteDance's profitability.

Chen Guiliang was waiting for ByteDance's stock price to continue to fall so he could buy his own shares at an extremely low price.

Surprisingly, it stabilized!
Because ByteDance not only achieved profitability, but its profits also increased month by month. ByteDance's financial reports are becoming increasingly impressive, and coupled with its stock buyback plan, its stock price rebounded in January of this year.

This counter-cyclical rebound has also occurred in companies like Baidu.

These are all companies with consistently high revenue growth, which have become a rare safe haven for investors during the economic crisis when many were suffering.

Baidu's stock performance this year saw its price-to-earnings ratio reach as high as 85 at its peak.

ByteDance's stock price has been rising recently because the second phase of the share buyback plan announced by Chen Guiliang is about to be implemented.

But it's estimated that it will fall soon.

Shareholders who entered through Series A and B venture capital rounds and the IPO will seize the opportunity to cash out and exit once ByteDance's stock price recovers to a certain level. This large-scale cashing out by shareholders will inevitably drive down ByteDance's stock price, giving Chen Guiliang the perfect opportunity to make large-scale acquisitions.

After browsing around ByteDance for a while, Lei Jun followed Chen Guiliang to Youke.

"Was this made with a self-developed 3D engine?" Lei Jun asked in surprise.

Chen Guiliang nodded: "The preliminary research for 'My Own Swordsman' took a long time. It wasn't until late autumn last year that we expanded the team and started formal development. We haven't even finished making Chang'an City yet."

"It's incredibly luxurious and beautiful, with excellent attention to detail. I doubt a typical computer could handle it, would it?" Lei Jun asked.

Chen Guiliang said, "Computers three years from now will probably be able to run it."

Lei Jun was even more surprised: "Wulin Gaiden is going to take three more years to make? You announced the project two years ago, didn't you?"

“It’s normal for this kind of game to take five years to make,” Chen Guiliang said with a smile.

Lei Jun exclaimed in amazement, "That's incredible!"

Chen Guiliang walked to another computer: "The details in the game are very meticulous. Look at this kind of clothing, its official name is Flying Fish Robe. Even experts who study ancient clothing can only speculate based on the History of Ming. But I sent people directly to Shandong Province to retrieve the real Flying Fish Robe from the Confucius Mansion's collection, took photos from various angles, and then replicated it in the game."

Lei Jun hunched over the computer screen, looking at the clothes again and again, growing to like them more and more. The clothes were so beautiful.

At that time, experts on ancient costumes and Hanfu enthusiasts were truly unaware that the Confucius Mansion possessed an actual flying fish robe. The Confucius Mansion wasn't intentionally hiding it; they simply didn't know that people were looking for it.

Just a few days ago, the official website of Wulin Gaiden released real photos of the flying fish costume, as well as character illustrations of online game characters wearing the flying fish costume.

It instantly ignited the Hanfu community!
A large number of Hanfu enthusiasts, and even clothing experts, flocked from all corners of the internet to the official website of Wulin Gaiden to check the situation.

A Hanfu enthusiast left a message on the official website: "I'm so excited! I can see the legendary flying fish robe in my lifetime. Although it's just a photo, it already makes me very satisfied. I plan to make a set myself. Compared with the real flying fish robe, all the previous restorations were just conjecture. Thank you, Mr. Chen, and thank you to the 'Wulin Gaiden' game project team. This game is very well made, and I will definitely play it after it is launched."

Another person commented: "Mr. Chen is really awesome at making games, the research is so damn meticulous. The Hanfu community has been trying to recreate the flying fish robe for years, always speculating based on historical records, but I never expected that they would find the real thing through a game!"

Another netizen joked: "Have you all forgotten? Chen Shiyi initially wrote 'Those Things of the Ming Dynasty' to earn money to support his company. He is a history researcher, much more professional than most Hanfu enthusiasts."

Previously, I was just a fan of the TV series "My Own Swordsman" and was also following the online game of the same name.

Now a large number of Hanfu enthusiasts have joined, and they frequently visit the official website of Wulin Gaiden.

Because they discovered that, in addition to the flying fish outfit, the game's official website also featured other ancient costumes, architecture, folk customs, music, weapons, etc.

One member of the Wulin Gaiden project team majored in ancient architecture restoration and even went on a field trip with Feng Ji. He even created a special feature on the game's official website, writing articles every week to explain the basics of the "Yingzao Fashi" (Building Standards) and posting original artwork of ancient buildings from the game.

Hanfu enthusiasts went crazy, calling on friends and recommending the official website of Wulin Gaiden to everyone they met.

What was once a perfectly good game website has now almost turned into a forum for ancient Chinese fiction enthusiasts.

Chen Guiliang also posted a message at the right time: "When the game is launched, I will take you back to ancient times to experience the most authentic life in the Ming Dynasty."

Numerous netizens enthusiastically replied to the post.

"I've been waiting for two whole years, when will the game be ready?"

"Youke's games are indeed good, but the production speed is too slow. I estimate that by the time 'Wulin Gaiden' is released, my son will be old enough to run errands."

"Looking forward to this game." "Ganlinniang, when will the sixth volume of 'Those Things About the Ming Dynasty' be released?"

"Chen Shiyi: I'm writing it, I'm writing it, please don't rush me."

"Mr. Chen, the game you recreated, the 'Horse Fighting' game, looks so much like Monopoly or a board game called Flying Chess? Did ancient China also have a board game?"

"Upstairs, do you think ancient Chinese people were all primitive? When people recreated ancient games, they explained it very clearly. The earliest record of the game of 'Da Ma' is Li Qingzhao's 'Da Ma Tu Jing'. In the Ming Dynasty, people in Lianghuai and Jiangnan were still playing Da Ma, only the rules were different from those in the Song Dynasty. But it really is an ancient version of Ludo."

"(Chen Guiliang personally replied) After the launch of 'Wulin Gaiden', there will be many ancient elements, including various ancient games. For example, this Ming Dynasty flying chess game, which players will play when interacting with NPCs. If everyone likes it, we will consider launching a player-versus-player battle function."

"..."

The longer netizens spend browsing the official website of "My Own Swordsman", the more surprises they discover; it's truly a treasure trove of a website.

……

"Is this yet another new game?" Leibusi came to the Oracle Era project team.

Chen Guiliang nodded and smiled: "A Dota-like game."

He is not afraid of revealing secrets, and has even set up an official website, where he has already begun to gather fans.

If anyone tries to follow the Dota gameplay, they will be badly screwed over by Chen Guiliang!
"Isn't it beautiful?" Chen Guiliang asked Xu Fengyin to bring up the Yasuo splash art.

Although Lei Jun couldn't quite explain it, he nodded and said, "It's exceptionally beautiful, and its style is unlike any other game."

“Let’s go over there,” Chen Guiliang said.

As they passed an office building, Lei Jun asked, "Aren't we going in to take a look?"

Chen Guiliang smiled and said, "This is a secret."

Lei Jun, on the contrary, was very curious and wanted to know what was going on inside.

He peeked inside and noticed there were foreign faces. Connecting this to Chen Guiliang's public statements before the Lunar New Year, Lei Jun guessed they were working on a customized online game for the Middle Eastern market.

Everything else can be viewed freely, but Middle Eastern browser games cannot be shown to others.

Because browser games are too easily copied and imitated!
Chen Guiliang led him into a small office, which used to be the reception room of Founder Group. After Founder moved out, You Ke rented it and made some minor modifications.

There were only three people inside.

Chen Guiliang said, "The new game we just made has already been launched. It's called 'Minecraft.' It's just a small game, and we haven't done much promotion. It's not very popular right now, but we've accumulated two or three thousand players."

"boss!"

The three researchers immediately stood up.

The person in charge of the Minecraft project is Ding Xiaoqi, who was Chen Guiliang's entrepreneurial partner in his past life who often helped him find girls.

He initially thought he had been relegated to a lower position, nominally promoted to game producer, but the project was far too small. Including himself, there were only three people in total.

However, the more I play it, the more interested I become; this game is so much fun.

Unlike the original Minecraft, which was quite crude when it was first released, the GamerSky version of Minecraft has a larger map and more content and features.

Of course, it is also considered a semi-finished product.

Further development needs to be carried out continuously based on player feedback.

"Mr. Lei, would you like to play a couple of rounds?" Chen Guiliang asked.

"How do we play?" Leibusi sat down.

Ding Xiaoqi immediately stood beside him and explained.

Lei Jun initially didn't take the extremely poor game graphics seriously, but he became engrossed in playing it.

It was more than 30 minutes later when he realized what had happened.

Lei Jun exclaimed, "This game has tremendous potential! But how will it make money?"

Chen Guiliang said, "It's not making money yet, everything is free, and we haven't even enabled the recharge function. It's just a semi-finished product, and it's still a long way from being mature."

Lei Jun stood up and remarked, "Visiting Mr. Chen's two companies reminded me of Kingsoft ten years ago. The atmosphere at Kingsoft back then was just like this..."

He suddenly shut up, because if he continued, he would be belittling the current state of Kingsoft.

Chen Guiliang said, "The principle of both of my companies is to focus on product development. We don't worry about whether we can make money first; we focus on providing a good user experience. If users are satisfied, profits will naturally follow. Especially for Youke, our current new projects are either small games that don't make money or large games that will take three to five years to develop."

Lei Jun pondered, "I think I understand now why Youke has achieved the second-largest market share in the online game market."

“Sincerity,” Chen Guiliang said, “players can feel it when you make games with a sincere attitude.”

(End of this chapter)