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Chapter 209 0206 [Definitely More Than 1 Million US Dollars]

Is a valuation of $1 million outrageous?

Despite its market share being eroded by Sina Blog and its failed attempt to transform into a portal, BlogChina was still valued at $5000 million in 2006, even after its valuation was halved!
Zhanzuo.com, which has been overshadowed by Chen Guiliang's Renren.com, is currently seeking to bring SIG into its Series B funding round, facilitated by Sequoia Capital. The initial valuation is $4000 million…

ByteDance's valuation is certainly more than just $1 million.

Because Tudou.com was valued at 20 to 30 million US dollars, and ByteDance was a shareholder of Tudou.com.

At the start of 2006, international capital investment in the Chinese internet is about to enter a frenzied and blind phase!
During Chen Guiliang's company annual meeting, the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) released an authoritative statistical report: As of the end of 2005, there were 4590 million computers connected to the Internet in China, and the total number of Chinese Internet users was approximately 1.11 million.

The number of internet users worldwide is only 9.7 million.

……

In Shanghai, Wang Wei attended a classmate reunion before the Spring Festival.

Yes, he ran into an old classmate and started dating her.

He recalled the additional terms of the Tudou.com financing agreement, which required signing a prenuptial agreement. Something felt off.

Tao Chenggang, who was far away in Hangzhou, had absolutely no interest in dating.

With the Spring Festival just around the corner, two new online games have been launched in the Chinese gaming market!

One is Target Software's "Aoshi OL". This thing is the online version of "Aoshi Sanguo", which accumulated a large number of fans in its early years through single-player games.

Its standalone version was the first Chinese game to participate in the E3 expo in the United States, and it was translated into 16 languages ​​and released globally.

Chinese game developers, including Tao Chenggang, are extremely wary of "Aoshi Online". They are all treating it as a major threat, secretly planning various activities to sabotage the upcoming launch of "Aoshi Online".

Another new game is Dungeons & Dragons Online, which is distributed by Shanda Games!
This game has become a hit in the European and American markets, and it is expanding rapidly despite the pressure from World of Warcraft.

Actually, there's a third new game, Tencent's "QQ Speed," but everyone consistently ignores Tencent Games. They don't consider it an enemy at all.

"Brother Gang, after Hangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, our game has been rolled out in internet cafes in Shenzhen, Nanjing, Chengdu, Wuhan and Fujian!"

"The next step is Shancheng, Chang'an, Luzhou, Shangdu, Shimen..."

Yang Yuhui was giving a report to Tao Chenggang.

He used to run a gold farming studio; he knew a little about computer technology, but wasn't an expert. Now he's mainly responsible for promoting internet cafes, and has already assembled a team of 100 people, with 20 people in each group going to major cities.

One internet cafe after another promoted their services, offering discounts on prepaid game cards to attract them to cooperate.

Tao Chenggang said on the phone, "You've worked hard. Tell the brothers to grit their teeth and persevere during the Spring Festival. I'll pay them triple wages in February, and double their performance bonuses too!"

"Haha, they'll definitely work even harder after hearing the news," Yang Yuhui laughed. "After the Spring Festival, I plan to recruit another 40 people."

Tao Chenggang said, "We'll recruit another 80 people. We'll quickly fill internet cafes in municipalities and provincial capitals, and then make a full-scale entry into second-, third-, and fourth-tier cities."

"The Reign of Power" transitioned from closed beta to open beta in mid-January, and its peak concurrent online users have now exceeded 250,000.

Of course, this is the best data for holding events during holidays.

Normally, there are about 12 people online at the same time (peak), but on weekend nights, the number can occasionally reach 15.

Don't think it's too little.

Currently, in the Chinese online game market, there are only about 10 games that can maintain this level of performance. This even includes casual games like Audition Online.

In a horizontal comparison during the same period, Perfect World's peak concurrent online users were only 15 during its event period.

In an effort to retain and attract new players, QQ Fantasy has been running a series of massive events and promotions, and has now boosted its concurrent online player count to over 40.

This attracted a large number of studios to the game, causing economic inflation in QQ Fantasy. At the same time, the number of max-level players increased, and they didn't know what to do, as they were stuck with highly repetitive dungeons and quests.

It is estimated that the number of online players in QQ Fantasy will drop again after the Spring Festival event ends.

"Old Tao, we've confirmed that over 6000 accounts are using offline cheats. And almost all the studios are using offline cheats." Founding shareholder and technical lead Luo Xiaoping rushed over.

Tao Chenggang said, "All accounts will be banned. And these accounts will be posted on the official website."

Luo Xiaoping said, "Some paying users are also using offline cheats. Two of them have accumulated over 5 yuan in spending. Several others have accumulated over 1 yuan in spending."

"All accounts will be permanently banned, and an announcement will be made in the game explaining the situation," Tao Chenggang said.

Luo Xiaoping hesitated for a few seconds, then nodded and said, "Okay!"

These days, every game is riddled with cheats.

"The Emperor's Reign" has only been online for three and a half months, and it has already developed an offline cheat.

World of Warcraft is also rife with cheaters, and The9 is about to launch "Operation Clean Wind," which will ban 120,000 accounts within a month.

On the very day that the account in "The Emperor's Reign" was banned, numerous posts filled with profanity appeared on 17173's special section and Tieba.

"Fuck Tao Chenggang, I've spent over 6 yuan on this account over the past few months. You didn't even bother to tell me, just banned it like that! I even supported you back then, and promoted you everywhere... Fuck you..."

"Haha, good job banning them. Everyone hates cheaters."

"You didn't even give us a heads-up? The game announcements are constantly warning against using cheats, and we've already warned you that serious offenders will have their accounts banned."

"Brother Gang is awesome! He even banned someone who spent over 6 yuan. I'm a die-hard fan of this game now!"

"I don't understand. They've already spent over 6 yuan, why would they still use cheats? Wouldn't it be better to just hire someone to boost their account?" "..."

However, many more posts were a mix of cursing and protesting for justice.

They vehemently denied using cheats and went on a rampage of posts, vehemently criticizing the game "Quan Yu Tian Xia" for arbitrarily banning accounts. Unsuspecting netizens genuinely believed they were innocent.

The customer service hotline of Bailian Technology Company has been overwhelmed with calls, with people coming in to appeal, saying they were wrongly blocked and requesting their accounts to be released.

Faced with this situation, Tao Chenggang instructed: "Have your online trolls post in the 17173 section and Tieba forum of 'Yulgang' to promote the ban on cheating accounts in 'Quan Yu Tian Xia'. Also, have your trolls go into the 'Yulgang' game and spread the word that we have banned all the cheating studios and paying players!"

"Yulgang" is the veteran of free-to-play games. Although there are many studios and cheaters everywhere, many players are still reluctant to leave.

Tao Chenggang's publicity strategy was very effective.

For the next two weeks, players from "Yulgang" (热血江湖) switched to "Quan Yu Tian Xia" (权御天下) every day because of the game's crackdown on cheating. Most of them used cheats themselves, but couldn't stand the cheating environment. They felt they couldn't play without cheats, but using cheats made the game less fun.

Now that there's a similarly free game called "The World's Power," players of "Hot Blood Jianghu" who haven't spent much money on the game are abandoning it without hesitation and switching to another platform.

This phenomenon can easily become a trend.

There have even been instances where entire guilds, led by their leaders, have switched to "The World's Power"!
A large number of players have left the game "Yulgang".

……

Beijing, 17game Company.

CEO Dai Hong previously ran "Millennium" and "Red Moon".

He held the phone receiver, his voice trembling with excitement: "President Liu, we've been negotiating for over three months. How can you just withdraw like this?"

"President Dai should know better than I do," came the deep voice on the other end of the phone.

Dai Hong feigned ignorance: "What is it?"

Mr. Liu on the other end of the phone said, "Zhengtu had a huge promotional campaign a few months ago, but fortunately the game was not very complete, and now it has disappeared to make the game again. But Quan Yu Tian Xia is very popular. Recently, it seems that many players of Yulgang have appeared in the special zone and forums, and they have agreed to go to the Quan Yu Tian Xia forum."

“Those are all isolated incidents!” Dai Hong argued.

17game, the operator of "Yulgang", is currently in talks with China.com about an acquisition.

Well, it should be said that it was acquired.

Shanda was initially invested in by China.com, but because they didn't have a good view of Chen Tianqiao's game business, they couldn't reach an agreement and simply let Chen Tianqiao go solo.

As a result, China.com missed out on "Legend".

Now that China.com sees the booming online game market, it wants to get involved and wants to acquire 17game.

That Mr. Liu is a senior executive at China.com, responsible for the acquisition negotiations.

Mr. Liu said, "Negotiations are temporarily suspended. After the Spring Festival, I will send a professional team to your company to thoroughly investigate the operation of 'Yulgang.' Do you understand?"

China.com has plenty of money and doesn't necessarily need to acquire 17game; they have countless other options.

"Understood." Dai Hong hung up the phone.

He was depressed.

Why am I always so unlucky?

He previously worked on "Millennium" and "Red Moon," only to encounter the monstrous "Legend." Now, working on "Hot-Blooded Jianghu," he's faced "The Emperor's Reign," and next up is "Conquer Online," marking his return to the game.

too difficult!
Dai Hong called over Sun Jingqing, who was in charge of operations: "How many players have left during this period?"

Sun Jingqing said, "I estimate that 10,000 to 20,000 people have fled. And it can't be stopped; the number is still increasing."

"We need to think of a way," Dai Hong said.

Sun Jingqing, who is also a shareholder of the company, said dejectedly, "What can I do? We need to maintain the number of online users, and we also need to crack down on cheating software, but the Korean developers are not cooperating. I don't have three heads and six arms; I can't meet so many demands."

Dai Hong said, "China.com has suspended negotiations and will send people to check the game's operation status after the Spring Festival."

Sun Jingqing was even more frustrated: "I said long ago that we should crack down on cheating and directly ban accounts that use cheats, but you stopped me and said we should continue negotiating with the Korean developers. Now how are we supposed to crack down? How many players in 'Yulgang' don't use cheats? Are we just going to ban them all?"

"We've banned malicious cheats, but we'll tacitly allow ordinary cheats," Dai Hong said.

Sun Jingqing countered, "How do you determine whether it's egregious or ordinary? Mass account bans now are essentially forcing all players to switch to 'The Emperor's Reign'!"

Dai Hong remained silent.

This game can no longer operate normally.

If they can't get investment from China.com, the company can still make do, but Dai Hong is thinking of cashing out and leaving!
……

On the eve of the Spring Festival, during the event.

The game "Reign of Power" announced that its peak number of concurrent online players has exceeded 30!
As a shareholder of Bailian Technology, ByteDance's valuation is expected to continue to rise.

-

(I forgot to schedule the posting of this chapter; I only realized it when I woke up from my nap at noon. Sorry.)
(End of this chapter)