I can become stronger by paying salaries. I have one billion employees!

Chapter 518 A 700 Billion Yuan Investment Return! Chen Yansen: You are the worst project I've ever invested in!

"Mr. Chen!"

"Mr. Chen!"

At the entrance of Zizhu Software Park, Cai Yuhao, wearing a plaid shirt and a hoodie, stood in a row with Liu Wei and Luo Chenghao.

As soon as Chen Yansen got out of the car, both forms of address came out at the same time.

Cai Yuhao and Luo Chenghao addressed him as "General Manager Chen," while Liu Wei called him "Mr. Chen."

"Wow! A Maybach 57S, this one must be worth seven or eight million!" Liu Wei muttered to himself, a hint of envy flashing in his eyes.

As a top student of Jiaotong University, I'm not even doing as well as a college student from a second-tier university.

But then he thought again that there was probably no other young person in the world who could compare with Chen Yansen.

Chen Yansen got out of the car, but instead of speaking, he looked the three of them over and shook his head, saying, "I've invested in dozens of startups, but Mihoyo is the one that impressed me the most."

"Thank you for your attention, Mr. Chen," Cai Yuhao replied curtly.

"Mr. Chen, is it because Mihoyo is the most special?" Liu Wei asked curiously.

Luo Chenghao, who has a technical background, stood to the side, looking somewhat awkward.

“It is indeed special.” Chen Yansen nodded and said slowly, “Among dozens of startups, Mihoyo is the most ‘miserable’ one, with annual revenue of less than 500 million.”

“…” Cai Yuhao.

"..." Luo Chenghao.

Liu Wei chuckled dryly and shamelessly replied, "Mr. Chen, this shows that Mihoyo has great potential and staying power."

"Let's go, let's go take a look at your studio." Chen Yansen waved his hand.

When Mihoyo was founded in December 2010, he invested 2 million yuan, holding a 15% stake.

Last March, Jin Zhicheng, no longer wanting to waste his youth with Cai Yuhao, wanted to cash in his shares after receiving an offer from Cisco. However, none of the three of them had the money, so they had no choice but to sell them to Senlian Capital.

Therefore, Chen Yansen currently holds 28% of Mihoyo's shares, second only to Cai Yuhao, making him the company's second-largest shareholder.

However, he didn't pay much attention to Mihoyo, only giving it a tiny bit of traffic support when Honkai Impact 3rd was launched.

Cai Yuhao looked embarrassed. He was criticized by the investor to his face, his cheeks were slightly hot, and his right hand unconsciously clenched.

He opened his mouth as if to explain, for example, that the team had been refining the new engine for the past two years, and that the user retention rate was actually far higher than the industry average, but he swallowed his words back.

Because what Chen Yansen said is an indisputable fact!
Mihoyo definitely didn't make any money!
Two years ago, at its peak, the project had more than 30 employees.

This year, they couldn't even gather 20 people; most of them couldn't hold on and ran away.

Honkai Impact 3rd adopts a buy-to-play model, with the game priced at 6 yuan. Its revenue is poor, barely enough to keep the team afloat.

Cai Yuhao and his two friends set a salary standard of 6000 yuan per month for themselves, which would only be considered lower-middle level in Shanghai in 2013.

After all, they are all top students from Jiaotong University.

This is also the main reason why Jin Zhicheng quit!

A graduate student from Jiaotong University could easily earn at least 10,000 to 20,000 yuan a month at any foreign company. Who would be foolish enough to stay in this hopeless little studio and earn a meager salary of a few thousand yuan a month?

Luo Chenghao quietly touched Cai Yuhao's arm, his eyes filled with a sense of reassurance.

Liu Wei was calmer than the other two. He scratched his head and said, "Mr. Chen, you don't know, but Yu Hao and his team filled half an office with reference materials just to make the character illustrations as perfect as possible. It was a bit slow, but every frame could withstand close scrutiny."

"For Honkai Impact 2, we plan to change our buy-to-play business strategy and learn from Tencent's game promotion model: offer free downloads first, then charge for reskinned versions!"

"What's your marketing strategy? Any ideas?"

Chen Yansen asked casually.

"The Honkai Impact series, to put it simply, is a chibi-style shooting game where 'beautiful girls fight beautiful zombie girls,' so the target audience is concentrated in the anime and manga community. When the closed beta test begins, the marketing department will release game information, exciting screenshots, and videos on relevant forums and communities to attract the attention of anime and manga enthusiasts."

In addition, by utilizing various anime conventions and exhibitions, game demo areas can be set up to allow players to experience the game's charm firsthand, thereby expanding the game's influence.

Liu Wei spoke eloquently.

Of the three, he has the strongest communication skills and serves as the Business President of Mihoyo, responsible for the company's operations and external cooperation.

Cai Yuhao leads the research and development of new products; his position is CEO, and he is a core technical expert.

Luo Chenghao's work mainly involves software development, and his position is Technical Director.

"Do you still have money for publicity and promotion?" Chen Yansen asked again.

Liu Wei chuckled: "Yes."

"But not many?" Chen Yansen countered.

Liu Wei gave a thumbs up and said with a big smile, "As expected of President Chen, the business god of our country, he saw right through me."

Chen Yansen smiled, pretended to ponder for a few seconds, and then said, "I'll give you another 1000 million yuan in funding. You can pool together 7% of the equity and give it to Senlian Capital."

When Honkai Impact 2 is released, I will allocate certain traffic resources to it in the app store and on Douyin.

His special trip to Mihoyo's headquarters was clearly not to attack or question Cai Yuhao and the other two.

Providing money and resources is what a qualified investor should do.

1000 million for 7% equity?
Liu Wei and Cai Yuhao exchanged a glance, and Luo Chenghao also looked surprised.

They originally thought Chen Yansen wanted to give up on Mihoyo, but unexpectedly, the big boss not only did not withdraw his investment, but also took the initiative to increase his investment.

Cai Yuhao was secretly delighted, but said aloud, "President Chen, isn't this valuation too high?"

Is Mihoyo short of money?

Definitely in short supply!
Honkai Impact 3rd, after only one year of operation, has only earned less than 4 million RMB. After deducting office, human resources, and server costs, the remaining profit is less than 1.5 million RMB.

Normally, this is when they should break up.

But Cai Yuhao gritted his teeth and poured money into the development of "Honkai Impact 2".

At this point, there was still over 400,000 yuan left in the account, which could barely last for two more months.

Therefore, Chen Yansen's 1000 million was more like a timely rain, quenching the thirst of the three men.

father!
Liu Wei stared intently at Chen Yansen, wishing he could kneel down and call him "Dad."

Given Mihoyo's size and revenue level, even a valuation of 4000 million would be difficult.

However, Chen Yansen set the valuation at 140 million, more than three times higher.

"Is 1000 million a lot?" Chen Yansen asked casually.

These words left Cai Yuhao and the other two speechless.

Ten million yuan is just a drop in the ocean compared to Chen Yansen's net worth of over one hundred billion US dollars.

For Cai Yuhao and his two companions, this sum of money was equivalent to their total revenue over three or four years.

Gao Weilin, who was following behind, smiled slightly.

To be honest, although he felt that Mihoyo had some potential, that was all; its annual revenue ceiling was at most a few hundred million.

But since the boss values ​​it, he naturally won't disagree; it's just an investment project worth tens of millions.

Four security personnel followed behind him.

The group walked around the park for more than ten minutes before finally stopping in front of a small six-story office building.

After taking the elevator to the fourth floor and walking through a narrow corridor, Chen Yansen finally saw a company sign, about the size of a doorplate, hanging not far away. Liu Wei eagerly pushed open the door, only to find the more than 70-square-meter office area crowded with people, and a wave of heat from the heating mixed with instant noodles and electronic devices hit him.

At about twenty makeshift workstations, programmers hunched over their keyboards, while the graphics tablets of the art team glowed dimly. The employees were all young.

Because if they're a few years older, they won't be so easy to fool.

Chen Yansen chuckled to himself; Mihoyo's office environment was actually inferior to that of FoxTao during its early days.

Liu Wei pushed open the small conference room at the end of the room. There was only one monitor in the room. On the screen, a girl with pink pigtails was holding a cartoon rocket launcher, with the crumbling ruins of the school in the background.

"Mr. Chen, would you like to try it out?" Liu Wei suggested.

He wanted to impress Chen Yansen with his product and secure the ten million yuan investment based on his own merits, rather than having Chen Yansen feel sorry for them and give them the money out of charity.

"can."

Chen Yansen responded.

Luo Chenghao busied himself moving chairs for everyone, then turned around to pour water.

Liu Wei turned on his computer, launched the Aurora Future emulator, and then picked up the game controller on the table and handed it to Chen Yansen: "Mr. Chen, please give it a try."

The first version of Honkai Impact 2 covered both Android and Aurora Future platforms. Liu Wei, quick-witted as ever, didn't choose the Android version with a wider audience, but instead specifically chose the Aurora Future version.

After all, Orange Technology is making every effort to popularize the Aurora Future OS system.

Liu Wei stood aside explaining how to play.

Before long, we entered the first level. The zombie girl was dressed in a sailor uniform, her eyes flashing with an eerie red light. When hit, she would burst out with a cotton candy-like chibi-style blood mist.

After playing for more than ten minutes, Chen Yansen found that the storyline, combat gameplay, art style, gacha and character development system of "Honkai Impact 2" were all well done.

When are you planning to launch it?

Chen Yansen put down the game controller and looked at Cai Yuhao, asking a question.

"The original plan was to launch in mid-December, but because the marketing plan has not yet been finalized, it may be postponed to late December or early January. However, as long as we have this 10 million yuan, we may be able to launch it to the market as scheduled."

Cai Yuhao explained everything in detail.

Chen Yansen understood. It wasn't that they hadn't come up with a marketing plan; it was clearly that they didn't have the money for promotion and were waiting for "Honkai Impact 3rd" to give them a financial boost.

"Old Gao, find someone to liaise with us. Once the equity transfer agreement is signed, transfer the money to them immediately."

Chen Yansen gave instructions to Gao Weilin, who was standing to the side.

“Yes, boss,” Gao Weilin replied immediately.

Chen Yansen looked around. The meeting room was only five or six square meters and didn't even have a window.

Mihoyo was in a really bad situation at the end of 2013.

However, this situation will be completely changed once Honkai Impact 2 is released.

From then on, Mihoyo basically never lacked money.

While Chen Yansen, Cai Yuhao, and others were discussing the marketing plan for "Honkai Impact 2" in the conference room, several Mihoyo employees outside the door were also whispering among themselves.

"So Mr. Cai wasn't just bragging! Chen Yansen really is an investor in our company."

"Brother Yu, are you still going to resign?"

"We've already made it through two years, what's a little more trouble? Let's see if Honkai Impact 2 can make money first."

"Why do you think Mr. Chen came to our company?"

"Investing?"

"I really hope Mr. Chen invests more money to give us a bigger office. It's so hard to even turn around right now."

The faces of the group were full of anticipation.

Chen Yansen stayed at Mihayou for an hour, then got into a Maybach and sped off towards the city center in a Mercedes-Benz van.

Cai Yuhao and Liu Wei turned back to the studio, excitedly announcing, "We've secured funding!"

"Mr. Cai, Mr. Liu, how much exactly?"

Upon hearing this, the employees gathered around.

"1000 million!" Cai Yuhao waved his arms, letting out all the excitement he had been holding back for so long.

"President Chen not only added 1000 million yuan in investment, but also promised to provide traffic resources to Mihoyo App Store and Douyin!"

His voice was a little hoarse, but it exploded like thunder in the small studio.

The first to jump up was a young man from the tech department: "Then can we switch to a better server? The last major update made the servers so laggy that players complained for three days straight!"

"Change!" Liu Wei said with a grin.

He paused and then said, "President Cai said that we'll hire five operations staff first, and then add two high-spec computers to the art team. If anyone tells me that their computer is too slow to draw detailed drafts, we'll replace the machine!"

For a time, Mihoyo was as lively as if it were Chinese New Year.

In reality, Cai Yuhao wasn't unable to secure funding, but rather unable to secure suitable funding.

They either demand an exorbitant 30% stake right off the bat, or they're only willing to offer money without providing Mihoyo with any additional resources.

Senlian Capital is different. With its advantages in the field of app distribution alone, it can push Honkai Impact 2 to take several more steps forward.

Cai Yuhao, Liu Wei, and Luo Chenghao were all very satisfied.

the other side.

Sitting in the car, Chen Yansen was also very satisfied. He had acquired 35% of the shares before Mihoyo took off.

With his resource allocation capabilities, coupled with the promotional advantages of app stores, Douyin, and Mimo, Honkai Impact 2 will only be more successful, and the same goes for Mihoyo.

Based on a valuation of 2000 billion, his investment will yield a return of 700 billion in a few years.

Chen Yansen's lips curled up slightly, revealing a satisfied smile. He originally intended to return to No. 116 Yunjin Villa, but halfway there, SAIC President Chen Xinzhi called and invited him to visit SAIC headquarters.

SAIC has launched a long-range version of the Roewe 550 pure electric vehicle, the Roewe 550 Plus, by replacing the power battery with a deep blue battery.

The luxury version is priced at 34.9 yuan and is equipped with a 65 kWh deep blue battery, providing a range of up to 400 kilometers.

The flagship version is priced at 18.9 yuan and is equipped with a 35 kWh deep blue battery, providing a range of up to 200 kilometers.

After enjoying national and local subsidies, the initial purchase price of the luxury version can be reduced to 24.9 yuan, and the flagship version to 10.9 yuan.

This price is already very competitive!

Of course, without subsidies, most users would not buy the Roewe 550 Plus.

Seeing that it was still early, Chen Yansen arranged to meet the other party at 2 pm.

at the same time.

BAIC also modified its original E150 EV into a pure electric vehicle with a longer range, and JAC also replaced the iEV4 with a deep blue battery.

After securing supplies from DeepBlue Battery, Great Wall Motors and BYD have also been busy developing pure electric vehicles.

Driven by the "Notice on the Promotion and Application of New Energy Vehicles in 2014" and DeepBlue Battery, China's new energy vehicle industry has officially entered a golden period of development.

　Godfathers, Chapter 3 is still being written and is expected to be updated at 1 AM. Please get some rest.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)