Restart life

Chapter 155 0152 [The Spirit of the Internet is Sharing] (Bonus Chapter for Alliance Leader Yu Xian Qi Tian)
The gameplay is the same, so it will not be considered plagiarism.

As long as the code, art, sound effects, and text aren't too similar, anyone can imitate "Three Kingdoms Kill" and "Happy Farm".

There is absolutely no legal risk.

Let Tencent copy it if they want. Chen Guiliang launched "Happy Farm" with only two core objectives:

First, increase the activity level of campus network users.

Second, to drive traffic to the newly created Youke Interactive Games platform.

Several days later, Lin Dongliang and Fu Jixun finally met Chen Guiliang again.

Chen Guiliang asked them to look at the backend data.

Lin Dongliang bent over and stood in front of the computer: "How come we have almost 150 million registered users in just a few days?"

Fu Jixun said, "Even if Happy Farm becomes very popular, it can't achieve this kind of effect, right?"

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "All university BBS forums across the country are now completely real-name registered."

The implementation of real-name registration for university BBS forums was not completed on the same day.

The Ministry of Education has only given a deadline, starting the rectification process in early March.

Some schools go to great lengths, banning logins from off-campus IP addresses and even preventing anonymous browsing. Peking University is an example.

Some schools make an exception, prohibiting posting from off-campus IP addresses and off-campus registration. However, previously registered accounts can still log in and browse posts. For example, Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

In the final stage of the rectification, the BBS forums of major universities were filled with farewell messages. Taking Tsinghua University's BBS as an example, the number of daily active users quickly dropped to only three or four thousand.

Whether it's a rebellious mentality or temporary discomfort, many college students have stopped using BBS in the short term. Renren (校内网) has become their preferred "refuge"!
Fortunately, the school's intranet kept running events and constantly upgrading its servers and bandwidth, which allowed it to smoothly accommodate and retain these people.

Even Zhanzuo.com seized the opportunity to gain a share of the pie, with over 36000 registered users.

Incidentally, due to the difficulty in controlling online rumors, some individuals have become extremely arrogant and rampant. In three months, even QQ group administrators will be required to register with their real names!
Next, there will be a real-name registration system for blogs next year, requiring all bloggers to register with their real names.

This wave of real-name registration finally subsided in 2008 when legislation on real-name registration for the internet failed to pass. A period of revelry for online intellectuals followed...

Can you imagine a bunch of well-known bloggers, media outlets, and companies working together on Weibo to repeatedly insult the martyrs in textbooks? It's as outrageous as it gets.

……

Lin Dongliang and Fu Jixun remained silent, focusing instead on the backend data of the school's intranet.

陈贵良说道：“根据去年教育部《全国教育事业发展统计公报》，2004年本科生约995万、专科生约339万、高中生约2220万、中职生约1409万。总计4963万人！”

"Our next step is to open up registration for high school and vocational school students."

"Looking at the data from recent years, the number of these student groups has been steadily increasing. This year, the number of undergraduate students will definitely exceed 1000 million, and the total number of students in these groups will definitely exceed 5000 million."

"By the way, master's and doctoral students haven't been included yet. Last year, there were about 309 million master's students and about 56 doctoral students. They are also users of Renren.com."

Chen Guiliang pointed to the computer and said, "The current 150 million registered users are not even a fraction of what we've achieved. As the base of registered users expands, the speed of natural user growth will accelerate. Adding 1 users a day is a conservative estimate. As long as we maintain user stickiness, adding 5 users a day is possible."

Fu Jixun nitpicked, "The more users you have, the higher the maintenance costs of the campus network, and your profitability has always been a problem. QQ has enough users and high user stickiness, right? More than half of its profits come from the wireless value-added services of Mobile QQ."

Lin Dongliang also said, "The government is tightening regulations on wireless value-added services, making it difficult to make money from this in the long run. That's why Tencent's stock price has been low, and now it has to raise funds to buy back shares. If you can't find a profit model for Xiaonei.com, it will be difficult to complete the Series B financing and future IPO."

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "Gentlemen, things move forward, and China's development speed has always been very fast. A few years ago, when the internet bubble burst, more than 90% of internet companies went bankrupt. Everyone thought the end of the world had come, but then wireless value-added services suddenly appeared, saving a large number of companies in China, didn't they?"

"Even if wireless value-added services disappear, more ways to make money will emerge. Because there are more and more internet users and faster internet speeds, there's a strong demand for monetization. The market demand is there, and it will automatically select the best method. In this process, some companies will die, but I certainly won't!"

"Xiaonei.com is already accepting ads, and they're high-quality ads for electronic products, because my user base is full of high-quality users. While Happy Farm won't make a lot of money, it will definitely be profitable. My goal for the next year is to break even."

Lin Dongliang and Fu Jixun exchanged a glance.

“Then let’s talk about valuation,” Lin Dongliang said.

Chen Guiliang interrupted, "Let's not talk about valuation first, let's talk about how many shares each of you two wants."

Lin Dongliang said, "IDG wants 15%."

Fu Jixun said, "DFJ needs to be 12%."

“That’s too much, impossible. I need to leave enough room for Series B funding,” Chen Guiliang shook his head. “Besides, the Series A round took 27% of my shares, which is forcing me to adopt an dual-class share structure. Hong Kong doesn’t allow dual-class share listings, so I’ll have to go to the US, and the US scrutinizes dual-class shares very strictly. What you’re doing is not only harming me, but also harming yourselves!”

Lin Dongliang asked, "How much are you willing to give?"

"At most 18%," Chen Guiliang said.

Fu Jixun said, "We need to discuss this further."

"Go ahead." Chen Guiliang had originally planned to stall for time.

...At the same time, a large number of advertising posts appeared on the Flash Empire forum: Youke Interactive Games is recruiting talents!

Although the moderator quickly realized the problem and deleted each post as it appeared, the advertising posts continued to emerge.

In the end, this angered many forum members, who questioned the moderator why these posts were deleted.

Why delete it?

Because Youke Interactive Games might steal users from Flash Empire!

But the forum members don't care about the commercial consequences; they're all generating electricity out of love. Now another website is waiting for them to contribute, and the forum administrator is actually stopping them from doing so.

So abominable.

The situation escalated, and the moderator was so heavily criticized that he resigned.

The advertisements for Youke Interactive Games can finally appear openly again, and the number is controlled to avoid annoying people.

Recruitment Notice: We sincerely invite Flash experts to create games and upload them to Youke Interactive Games. Creators will be paid in in-game currency based on the number of times and the amount of time players spend playing. This in-game currency can be converted into RMB and paid to creators quarterly, and can be used to purchase items in other Youke games.

Unfortunately, these Flash games simply can't sell in-game items. The only way to generate revenue is to increase website traffic and then attract advertising revenue.

However, Flash games are very inexpensive to produce; a simple one can be made for just a few hundred dollars, and the creator doesn't need to be particularly skilled.

If the creator is versatile, they may not even need production costs; they can simply spend a little more time to create it.

Tian Rui is a Flash animator and currently a student at the Communication University of China. He frequents the Flash Empire.

He created Flash music videos (online songs) and Flash games free of charge and uploaded them to Flash Empire for users to share. In return, he only received site points, which could be used to watch paid animations and so on.

Tian Rui asked in the QQ group: "Who wants to go to Youke Interactive Games to distribute mini-games?"

"I want to give it a try. I heard that you can exchange in-system currency for RMB every quarter."

"Who knows the law? Go and look at Youke's user agreement."

"I've reviewed it, and it seems fairly standard. The copyright is still in our hands. If Youke wants to buy it out, a supplementary agreement will be signed separately. However, if it's uploaded to Youke, it automatically assumes that Youke has the priority to purchase the copyright."

"That's alright, as long as it doesn't rip people off."

"The amount to be exchanged in RMB wasn't clearly stated."

"Who cares? It's good enough if we can earn a hundred or so yuan. It's better than not earning a penny at all before."

"Exactly. If it's too much of a rip-off, we'll just stop uploading to Youke in the future."

"I think making money is secondary. The sense of accomplishment from being able to share my work with more netizens is something that money can't buy. Youke's 'Three Kingdoms Kill' and 'Happy Farm' are very popular, and their user base is growing rapidly. We can share them with many netizens."

"Yes, sharing is the spirit of us Flash animators!"

"I have a small game that's almost finished, and I'll upload it in a couple of days."

"..."

In less than a week, more than 20 new Flash games were added to Youke Interactive's game pool.

All of these were uploaded by netizens; the game company didn't spend any money on them.

Although the settlement is made in RMB every quarter, the amount is actually very small, and most creators would probably be embarrassed to apply for the exchange. They'd be better off using it to buy items in games like "Three Kingdoms Kill" or "Happy Farm"!
With the influx of users from games like Three Kingdoms Kill and Renren, Youke Interactive's registered users have surged.

Many people play "Three Kingdoms Kill" while simultaneously watching "Happy Farm," frequently switching to other games to harvest or steal crops.

Some users, like older adults, registered specifically because of "Happy Farm." When they couldn't harvest or steal crops, they would play other Flash games. Since they were all free, why not play?

There are a lot of people who play Tetris.

Game Science is hiring again.

We need to hire some programmers and advertising salespeople.

The next step is to create card and board games, such as Dou Dizhu (a popular Chinese card game), and put them on Youke Huyou (an online gaming platform) for older people to enjoy.

With the viral spread of "Happy Farm" both online and offline, Tencent reacted the fastest, establishing the "QQ Farm" project team in the second week.

Several other companies followed suit.

Tencent has even set its sights on "Three Kingdoms Kill" and is preparing to form a knock-off project team.

May has finally arrived.

News has come from the US that Facebook has secured $1270 million in investment, valuing the company at $1 million post-investment!
Chen Guiliang then called Lin Dongliang and Fu Jixun, saying, "We can now begin formal negotiations."

(End of this chapter)