Entertainment mogul: Starting his business with the internet

Chapter 22 Career Development
At that moment, Zhang Yong had no more doubts about joining Tengda Technology Company.

Choosing the right path in life is very important; perhaps by following a prodigy, one can achieve great things.

“I have several brothers who have worked with me for many years. They are all very capable. I don’t know if President Song would be willing to accept them.”

Song Ci smiled brightly, "Tengda welcomes all ambitious individuals to join us; naturally, the more outstanding talents the better."

Time flies like a rushing river. More than a month has passed since Song Ci met Zhang Yong in Donghai and returned to Beiping. It is now late August, and there are still ten days before the start of the university semester.

These days, Song Ci is busy. With Zhang Yong's best efforts, he has finally set up Tengda Technology and the company has successfully gotten on the right track and started normal operation.

In a small conference room at Tengda Technology, Song Ci was having a meeting with a few people. Apart from him, the chairman of Tengda Technology and Tengda Culture, there were not many people present. Apart from Liu Shishi, who was just there to serve tea and water, the rest were senior executives of the company.

Zhang Yong, CEO of Tenda Technology
Yang Junfeng, Project Manager of Tengda New Portal Website

Huang Sheng, Project Manager of Tengda Games
Wang Jing, General Manager of Tengda Culture

Liu Rong, Vice President of Tengda Culture and Head of Southern Cinema Circuit
Jiang Tiantian, Assistant General Manager of Tengda Culture
These six people are the core leadership of the Tengda Group. Song Ci brought the people from the two companies together for two reasons: first, he hoped that the two companies could cooperate in their business; second, he wanted everyone to get to know each other so that when the companies grow and form a group, those present would be the backbone of the group.

Song Ci sat in the main seat, with three male executives from Tengda Technology on her left and an all-female team from Tengda Culture on her right, clearly separating the two sides.

The meeting has been going on for some time.

"President Song, that's a summary of the progress of the 'Youthful Days' project over the past month."

Wang Jing had just finished her report. She is the producer of "So Young". Within Tengda Culture, she is mainly responsible for film and television production and project investment.

Song Ci nodded. The final estimated investment for "So Young" was 8 million yuan, which had already been approved by him. Filming was scheduled to begin in mid-September, and the film was expected to be released during the winter break next year.

The male lead is Qiao Zhengyu, the first artist signed by Tengda Culture, while the female lead is played by Gao Yuanyuan, who was invited by the company.

Gao Yuanyuan is currently enjoying great popularity after playing Zhou Zhiruo in "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber". Song Ci also felt that she was quite suitable for the female lead in "So Young". After Wang Jing suggested it, he nodded in agreement. As for the other casting, he was too lazy to ask and let Wang Jing and director Teng Huatao make the decision themselves.

After listening to the report on "So Young," Song Ci asked Wang Jing, "How is the 'Bright Sword' project progressing?"

Seeing how interested her boss was, Wang Jing quickly said, "It's going very smoothly. Military-themed films are not currently favored by the market. After we contacted Hairun Company, they were also interested in accepting our investment. The initial estimate is that the investment will not exceed 1000 million yuan. The specific share is still under negotiation. However, Hairun does not agree to sell the film and television copyright to us."

Although Wang Jing didn't understand why Song Ci would go against the market and choose a military-themed show like "Bright Sword" which wasn't particularly popular, she would still do what her boss had solemnly instructed her to do.

"We can make some concessions on the investment share, but we must secure the online copyright."

Song Ci clearly remembers that "Bright Sword" was a hit TV series in 2005. Li Yunlong became a household name across the country, and the 9 million yuan investment yielded a return of over 100 million yuan. In her previous life, Hairun Company made a fortune from "Bright Sword," and the plot of the TV series was adapted into various jokes that became popular all over the internet.

Now that such an opportunity has arisen, Song Ci of "Bright Sword" should naturally get involved, so he specifically asked Wang Jing some time ago to make sure that the "Bright Sword" project was secured.

Song Ci looked at the three powerful women one by one, "Does Tengda Culture have anything else to report?"

Wang Jing glanced at Liu Rong and Jiang Tiantian, and seeing that they both shook their heads, she replied to Song Ci, "President Song, we'll wrap things up here."

Liu Rong and Jiang Tiantian had already reported to Wang Jing. One of them was in charge of publicity and distribution and the Southern Cinema Circuit, and the other was in charge of administration and logistics. They were both new to their jobs and were still in the process of getting used to them.

Seeing that Song Ci nodded slightly but did not comment on Tengda Culture's work, Zhang Yong knew it was his turn, so he said, "President Song, Tengda Technology will now report on its work. President Huang, you can go first."

Huang Sheng and Yang Junfeng were both internet industry talents recruited by Kerui Company for Tengda Technology. After the interviews, Song Ci and Zhang Yong assigned one of them to be in charge of the portal website and the other to be in charge of the game section.

Huang Sheng is 34 years old this year. He is slightly overweight and has a somewhat shrewd appearance. After hearing Zhang Yong's words, he slowly said, "President Song, President Zhang, colleagues, our team has carried out in-depth development and processing on the basis of the initial version provided by President Song for the company's first game project, 'Minecraft'."

The game features enhanced playability and security, and is priced at $33 USD. It was released yesterday, August 19th, on the company's TD gaming platform, gamespot, NeoGAF, and other professional gaming websites. Download links are also available on major websites both domestically and internationally, including Yahoo, Google, Baidu, and Tianya.

The first game project that Song Ci chose for the company was the now-classic game "Minecraft".

With over 3 million downloads in its previous form, Minecraft is widely recognized as one of the world's most profitable games, making it the perfect first game project for Tenda Technology.

Moreover, Minecraft is easy to develop; in his previous life, the Swede Markus Aleksey Persson developed the initial version of Minecraft in just four or five days.

After Song Ci developed the initial version using technology from his previous life, Tengda Technology's game development team conducted internal testing and refinement, making it even more perfect than when the game was first launched in his previous life. This is sure to make Tengda Games an instant hit.

After pondering for a moment, Song Ci added with concern, "Strengthen promotion and marketing. We can try cooperating with game distributors in Europe and America, closely monitor game downloads, and pay attention to player feedback to fix bugs promptly."

Minecraft is the company's cash cow; every download is a real dollar, so Song Ci naturally takes it very seriously and can't afford to be too concerned.

Huang Sheng is meticulous and serious in his work. After writing down Song Ci's instructions one by one, he continued, "The company's first online game, 'Wulin Conflict,' has also begun to accelerate its production. However, the development cycle of online games is long. Although we have the help of our sister company, Tiangong Special Effects, in terms of art and game effects, the earliest we can launch the closed beta is the second half of next year."

After much deliberation, Song Ci concluded that although making games had a bad reputation, it was indeed the most profitable business. Since the decision had been made to pursue this business, the company and platform could not rely entirely on self-made games for their development.

He instructed Zhang Yong and Huang Sheng, "For the company's online games, while rushing to meet deadlines, you must also ensure quality."

(End of this chapter)