Restart life

Chapter 137 0134 [The key is to get players to spend money]

The day after the broadcast of "Dialogue," the awards ceremony for the 7th New Concept Writing Competition was held.

Chen Guiliang, a special guest, sat below and found the press section rather deserted this year.

Media attention has plummeted!
The design of the first prize is also quite abstract.

Last year, there were 27 first prizes in both Group A and Group B.

This year, there were 40 first prizes in Group A, while there were only 5 first prizes in Group B.

Chen Guiliang looked at the contestants who went up on stage to receive their awards, somewhat confused about what was going on.

Chen Guiliang asked Cao Wenxuan in a low voice, "Director Cao, there's a rather large difference in the number of first prizes between Groups A and B this year."

Cao Wenxuan explained, "The awards are judged strictly according to the quality of the essays. This year, there were many high-quality essays in Group A, but very few high-quality essays in Group B."

This means that the reserve strength for the competition is insufficient.

Younger students who can write good articles are too lazy to sign up for the competition.

In another time and space, in the next New Concept Writing Competition, the number of first prize winners in both Groups A and B dropped to single digits.

This competition is practically dead!

To generate buzz, the organizers even had Chen Guiliang speak on stage after the leaders' speeches. Of all the well-known young writers who emerged from the New Concept Writing Competition, only Chen Guiliang was willing to attend.

What else can Chen Guiliang say? He'll just say a few words: thank you to the New Concept Writing Competition for providing him with a platform, congratulate this year's winners, and wish the essay competition an even better year next year.

After the awards ceremony, Hu Weishi called Chen Guiliang aside and said, "The summer event has been confirmed. It's called the 'First Intergenerational Literary Communication Forum,' which will bring together writers from three generations to have a dialogue. It will be held around the end of July."

"I will definitely come then," Chen Guiliang said.

The phone text message sounded.

After reading the text message, Chen Guiliang said, "Sorry, my girlfriend is here."

"Aren't you staying for lunch?" Hu Weishi asked.

Chen Guiliang said, "I still have to catch a flight."

As Hu Weishi watched Chen Guiliang disappear down the corridor, he wondered: How many girlfriends does this guy have?

When Han Han chatted with Hu Wei, he often boasted that he had several girlfriends.

Chen Guiliang hurried downstairs and headed to the airport with Bian Guanyue.

Bian Guanyue wanted to speak her mind several times, but she swallowed the words back.

Her cousin's words did indeed make Bian Guanyue a little flustered. She felt that she should do something, and couldn't just stay by Chen Guiliang's side as a submissive woman.

But she had no interest in doing business.

It seems there's nothing else I can do besides studying hard right now.

Bian Guanyue tossed and turned all night, thinking for most of the night before finally falling asleep.

She only knows how to sing Sichuan opera, but most of the Sichuan opera troupes have long since disbanded. There are only a handful left in the whole country, barely surviving on government funding, and even the famous actors are so poor that they have to set up street stalls.

Whether it makes money or not is another matter; the key issue is that there's no audience!
She studied vocal music for several years and even studied music theory for two and a half years.

Then, Bian Guanyue remembered "Mice Love Rice," a song that had become incredibly popular recently. She wanted to write a song about it and release it online.

But Bian Guanyue didn't want to be famous, or rather, she was a little afraid of becoming famous.

She plans to give herself a very ordinary stage name, the kind that netizens will forget in the blink of an eye.

Yes, she has already decided on her stage name: "Li Jing".

It's hard to make people remember you.

On the plane, Bian Guanyue couldn't hold back any longer: "I want to write a song, would you like to write the lyrics?"

"Why did you suddenly want to write songs?" Chen Guiliang asked with a smile.

Bian Guanyue said, "I want to find something to do. Online songs are very popular now, so I'll try posting one."

"This is a good thing, you should be brave enough to try," Chen Guiliang encouraged.

Chen Guiliang didn't intend to just copy the song for her.

Bian Guanyue's idea was to do something, not to become famous or make money.

Upon returning to the capital, Bian Guanyue immediately bought a guitar and pondered how to compose music in his rented room.

Chen Guiliang just smiled and didn't interfere. He knew what this silly girl was thinking.

I'm a little insecure, afraid that my boyfriend will drift further and further away from me!
He left her in the rented room to tinker with music while Chen Guiliang went to the company alone.

"Oh, so President Chen actually knows how to come back." Guo Feng also learned to be sarcastic, just like Senior Sister Ao.

Chen Guiliang said, "I was afraid you would be lonely, otherwise I would have gone back to my hometown long ago."

Xie Yang chimed in, "He's definitely coming back to urge us to work. You can't trust what capitalists say."

Chen Guiliang said, "I've even changed my QQ name to 'Little Boy Under the Streetlight.' If I ever exploit you again, just hang me on a streetlight."

He went straight to Ao Yanzhen's workstation: "How many Taobao stores have you contacted?"

Ao Yanchen chatted away on QQ, staring at the computer screen, and said, "More than two hundred Taobao stores have already agreed to help us sell Three Kingdoms Kill. I'm still contacting them."

Chen Guiliang said, "We'll have them specify in their Taobao store that we'll subsidize customers 8 yuan for each order's shipping cost."

"We'll have to have a serious talk with the courier company later," Ao Yanchen said.

At that time, there were approximately 30 Taobao stores.

Postage prices fluctuate greatly.

YTO Express is the cheapest, followed by STO Express, then SF Express, and finally China Post is the most expensive.

In terms of overall delivery address, the Yangtze River Delta region (Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai) is the cheapest, followed by the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, then Fujian and Guangdong, and many areas are only delivered by postal service!
For example, in Xinjiang and Tibet, the express delivery fee starts at 50 yuan, and you can only use EMS.

Next, let's talk about the cheapest option, YTO Express. Delivery starts at 8 yuan in the Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai areas; 10 yuan in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region; and 12 yuan in Fujian and Guangdong. For inland areas like Sichuan, the postage is extremely high, and they only deliver to the provincial capital.

For slightly more expensive items, buyers prefer to choose local Taobao stores. They bypass express delivery and conduct offline transactions, arranging to meet at a certain station, with the seller delivering the goods by bus... In this case, only a very small number of stores offer free shipping, and even if they do, it will raise the price of the goods.

Many customers changed their minds after selecting their items because the shipping costs were too high.

Chen Guiliang subsidized 8 yuan for postage; he's really going all out to sell the cards.

After chatting with Ao Yanzhen for a while, Chen Guiliang went to check the data for the online version of Three Kingdoms Kill.

The company has 24.8 registered users, 7.5 daily active users, and a paying user rate of 3.7%.

The paying user rate is quite high, mainly consisting of players of the card game "Three Kingdoms Kill," primarily those with their own computers. These days, people who can afford a computer aren't short of money!

Registered users are growing rapidly, and the daily active user ratio is rising. This indicates that most of the recent increase in registered users are not university students—because university students generally don't take their computers home during winter break.

The recharge function has been available for eight days, and the cumulative recharge amount has exceeded 20 yuan!

However, most of this 20 yuan was used to purchase memberships, primarily monthly subscriptions. They are very likely to not spend a single penny in the coming month.

We still need to figure out how to get players to spend money.

A monthly membership costs 18 yuan and includes free use of generals from the "Wind Pack" and some free items. It also provides experience and silver bonuses. An additional general selection slot has been added.

Without a membership, players must purchase the Wind Pack generals to play. They can be purchased individually or as a set, but it's more expensive than a membership.

Chen Guiliang typed on the keyboard and wrote down a plan to induce players to recharge:

First, a new general card, [Yuan Shao], will be added, which can only be obtained by opening chests. It is scheduled to be released after the start of the school term.

Of course, Chen Guiliang wouldn't make things too disgusting. If you get extra generals from opening chests, you can break them down into universal general souls. Once you have enough general souls, you can synthesize [Yuan Shao].

Secondly, members will be provided with three free Three Kingdoms-themed avatars and general skins.

Third, we've added premium borders, Three Kingdoms-themed skins, and general skins, which can only be obtained by opening treasure chests.

Fourth, enable the egg-smashing and flower-sending features; everyone understands the importance of grocery shopping. However, with current technology and internet speeds, the special effects must be simplified as much as possible.

Chen Guiliang logged into QQ and clicked on the profile picture of a friend named "Tiandao Qian".

This is Guan Zhiqiang's senior.

"Master, is Diao Chan's premium skin still not finished?" Chen Guiliang asked.

The other party did not reply to the message.

Chen Guiliang took out the History of Ming and continued to copy down information.

Two full hours passed before the senior student finally said, "It can be finished before the Chinese New Year."

The little boy under the streetlamp said, "I also need you to draw premium skins for Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Sun Shangxiang. Same price as before."

Akane Tendo: "I'm going to do an internship at an animation company next month, so I probably won't have much time."

The little boy under the streetlamp said, "With your talent, working at an animation company would be a waste of your abilities. You'd only be able to do some low-quality animation for young children. Why don't you come to my company and become a full-time game artist? The salary is higher, and you'll have more fun drawing."

Guan Zhiqiang, this senior sister, is really amazing; she's much better than those amateurs from the Yuanhuo Society.

Akane Tendo: "I need to think about it some more."

The little boy under the streetlight said, "Then you should draw the premium skins for Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Sun Shangxiang first."

Akane Tendo: "I'll give it a try."

This guy is easy to fool; he doesn't know anything about drawing.

……

After CCTV's "Dialogue" program aired, it indeed garnered a certain response.

The show has high ratings.

Chen Guiliang already had a group of haters for no apparent reason, and now they've finally found dirt on him again.

"It's not that I'm jealous, but Chen Guiliang is really arrogant. Damn it, he opened two companies and published a book, and now he's all high and mighty. What right does he have to comment on Sohu, NetEase, Sina, and Baidu?"

"This guy is incredibly narcissistic. He even said that venture capitalists who don't approach him are blind. Only a blind person would approach him!"

"The two upstairs are just jealous. Chen Guiliang is right, what kind of young person isn't arrogant? They have the right to be arrogant. What were you doing in your freshman year?"

"I support Chen Guiliang. I come from a rural area myself, and he speaks very well about rural education!"

"What a load of rubbish, he's against holistic education."

"Hey upstairs, what score did you get on your reading comprehension test? Chen Guiliang isn't against holistic education, but he thinks public opinion has a misunderstanding of it!"

"..."

The online discussion was heated, and some media outlets followed suit.

The topic of holistic education has been ongoing since 1999. Even the New Concept Writing Competition is a product of holistic education.

Interestingly, Southern Metropolis Daily strongly supports Chen Guiliang this time.

Don't think that Southern Metropolis Daily only does bad things; if that were all, it wouldn't have such a large influence. Many of its articles hit the nail on the head regarding current affairs, which is why it attracts so many readers.

Last year, Southern Metropolis Daily criticized the "quality education" policy, saying that "quality education is a privilege of cities, while in rural areas it's just empty slogans." This aligns with Chen Guiliang's current viewpoint.

Of course, Southern Metropolis Daily has multiple editors and reporters with differing opinions; just a couple of years ago, they were criticizing exam-oriented education.

If you dig out their two own reports and compare them, you'll find they're quite contradictory.

Public opinion is extremely chaotic these days, and it's very difficult to figure out which side a person or organization is on.

Professor Zhang, who was later criticized as a neoliberal economist, also firmly opposed holistic education. Last year, he said, "Holistic education is a utopia; under the pressure of survival, grades are the only hard truth."

Regardless, Chen Guiliang used the talk show "Dialogue" to make a lot of noise and boost his profile.

It was under these circumstances that "Tales of the East" premiered.

This time, his verbal attacks are even more scathing!

(End of this chapter)