Restart life

Chapter 264 0261 [Renren.com Users Exceed 10 Million]

Chen Guiliang finished recording "Dialogue" on CCTV on September 6th.

I won't go into the details of the recording, but it was basically just repeating what I said to the older women that day on the "Dialogue" program.

Chen Guiliang was the main guest, and the other two guests were professors.

One professor believes minors should be banned from playing games, while another believes children should be guided to play healthy games.

The audience members came from all walks of life, and most of them opposed online games.

Then Chen Guiliang was surrounded and attacked.

Some parents even said that all internet cafes nationwide should be banned.

If CCTV's "Dialogue" program doesn't change its format, Chen Guiliang won't come next time. Recording it is exhausting.

"Boss, the Internet Society has sent an invitation letter. They'd like you to attend this year's China Internet Conference on the 21st of this month." Secretary Hu Yuexia came in with a letter.

Chen Guiliang asked, "Is there anything special this year?"

Hu Yuexia said, "It's a very large-scale event, and the higher-ups attach great importance to it. The head of the Ministry of Information Industry, the CEOs of China Mobile and China Unicom, and the CEOs of internet giants all have to go."

"Understood, please make the arrangements," Chen Guiliang said.

Chen Guiliang buried himself in reading other reports, and Hu Yuexia closed the door as she left.

Xiami Music has officially launched and is interacting with Renren and HaiNei. With the new students arriving on campus this year, the three parties will launch the "Original Music Online Competition" in mid-September.

With universities continuing to expand enrollment, the number of undergraduate and junior college students in the second half of this year has already soared to 1738.8 million.

In the past few days, a large number of new students have registered on the school's intranet.

According to data from the website's backend, the number of undergraduate and junior college students using Renren.com exceeded 700 million yesterday.

This means that 40% of undergraduate and junior college students have registered for a campus network account. That's higher than the percentage of university students who own computers!

Regardless of whether I use it often or not, I'll probably get pulled in by my classmates anyway, so I'll just register an account first.

In addition, Renren.com has over 50 current graduate students (Master's and Doctoral), over 3 adult education students, and over 200 million high school, vocational high school, and technical secondary school students. It also has over 140 million graduated users who occasionally interact on the Renren.com platform.

The total number of users has reached 1056 million!
In the next month or two, a large number of new students will register.

This is genuine and there's no question of repeated registrations, because it's all based on real-name registration. At most, you might register but not use it, turning it into a zombie account.

This morning, the data was released on the school's intranet, and the good news was highlighted in red and bold on the homepage.

Upon hearing the news, Zhang Fan, CEO of Zhanzuo.com, sat in his office speechless for a long time.

He gradually converted nearly 100 million student users through Yiyou email users.

They went on a spending spree of money on ground promotion and even partnered with the Communist Youth League, China Youth Daily, and various universities. The inspirational college student selection event organized by Zhanzuo.com was actually hosted by the Communist Youth League, with awards presented personally by League leaders.

Almost all student union members from major universities have registered accounts on the "seat-reserving website".

However, the number of users has not increased for a long time, and currently only has more than 160 million.

Moreover, many of these 160 million users have become zombie accounts and have long since moved to Renren.com.

Campus online social networking is relatively closed, and offline factors have a significant impact.

This is different from the general social networking on HaiNei.com, which can accommodate many websites.

A closed social circle can only have one member, and a minority will follow the lead of the majority. Otherwise, it's considered unsociable and cannot form a vibrant social ecosystem.

Step by step, step by step!

Those who eat quickly eat meat, those who eat slowly eat shit.

Zhang Fan is feeling extremely uncomfortable, like he's eaten shit. He can't explain this to the investors anymore, so he can only discuss how to shut down Zhanzuo.com.

It was a time of rampant investment, where anyone could get funding.

Moreover, Zhanzuo.com has over 100 million users and is supported by the Communist Youth League, China Youth Daily, and major universities.

Using these methods, Zhang Fan surprisingly attracted millions of dollars in venture capital funding. Among them, Sequoia Capital alone invested $200 million.

What's most infuriating is that in the first annual inspirational college student selection on Zhanzuo.com, users voted Chen Guiliang to sixth place out of 10... Fortunately, Chen Guiliang didn't attend the award ceremony, otherwise it would have been incredibly embarrassing.

Zhang Fan picked up his phone and dialed an investor: "Hello, Mr. Shen, this is Zhang Fan from Zhanzuo.com... Yes, yes... I have something to tell you, I'm planning to shut down Zhanzuo.com."

"What did you say?" The voice on the other end of the phone was extremely shocked.

Zhang Fan sighed, "The number of users on Renren.com has exceeded 1000 million. But our Zhanzuo.com hasn't seen much growth in the past few months, and user activity is getting lower and lower. I'm not planning to do any more on-the-ground promotions for freshmen this year; every little bit helps."

The investor was so angry he couldn't speak. After a long silence, he finally asked, "Is it really not working out?"

Zhang Fan said, "It's really no use. Apart from Renren.com, no other campus social networking site in the country can survive. I will stop all non-essential spending. You and the other investors should send someone over as soon as possible to check the financial situation."

"Sigh... fine then." The investor sighed.

Venture capital, the word "risk" comes first.

If Zhanzuo.com shuts down, Renren.com will have a near monopoly on campus social networking.

Of course, QQ Zone also indirectly seized market share, taking away too many middle school student users.

The news that Renren.com had surpassed 1000 million users quickly spread to other internet companies, even shocking some industry leaders.

Because behind these accounts are a real 1000 million people!

"Hello, this is Renren.com... If Lenovo is going to run ads again next week, the advertising fees will increase... It's not about raising prices arbitrarily; Renren.com has surpassed ten million users. Not the ten million users of other websites who repeatedly register; ours are all real-name registered. Advertising fees for a website with ten million users will definitely increase because the advertising effect will be better..."

Advertising sales representatives on Renren.com are now more confident when making phone calls.

Because many students complained that the ads on both sides were uncomfortable to look at, the school's intranet has removed those ads.

Now only banner ads remain. Banner ads are further divided into website homepage, category homepage, and personal homepage banner ads.

Despite the apparent abundance of ads, the page is actually remarkably clean; aside from the ads at the very top, the rest of the page is completely uncluttered.

This time, advertising prices have increased, with banner ads on the website's homepage now costing 5 yuan per day!
Moreover, special days are calculated separately.

For example, during the start of the new school year, many freshmen will buy electronic products. Advertising at this time will definitely be very effective, and the advertising fees will naturally be higher.

Brands like Lenovo, Hasee, Nokia, and Motorola are major advertising clients during the back-to-school season.

"Mr. Chen, congratulations!" Yang Lin, Vice President of Carlyle Group Asia, called to offer her congratulations.

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "Congratulations! Congratulations! Let's all make money together."

Yang Lin asked, "Renren.com's market share among college students should be over 50%, right?"

Chen Guiliang made up an excuse: "More or less."

Yang Lin exclaimed, "This is an astonishing achievement. Moreover, HaiNei.com had already surpassed 1000 million users. With two websites boasting tens of millions of users, and investments in rapidly growing game companies and video websites, they are qualified to list on NASDAQ."

"With further development, next year's performance will definitely be even better," Chen Guiliang said.

Yang Lin knew Chen Guiliang had a stubborn temper, so she said in a consultative tone, "How about planning the IPO early next year? I'll contact a few other investors to help you. You also need to hire a senior executive specifically in charge of the IPO. We can recommend someone, but whether you use them or not is up to you."

“Okay, you can recommend one together. But I need to talk to this person first,” Chen Guiliang said.

Yang Lin's mood improved, and she chatted with Chen Guiliang for another ten minutes, like a caring older sister.

Shortly after hanging up the phone, investors from IDG, DJF, and other institutions also called to congratulate him and discussed the IPO.

IDG, in particular, is an institution that prefers small-scale investments and quick exits, and has long been hoping that ByteDance can go public as soon as possible.

On the contrary, Carlyle prefers long-term operations, often holding onto its shares for several years after a company has gone public. However, they enjoy helping others optimize their companies and interfering in the affairs of their investees.

"Senior, I've arrived at school!" Tao Xue called excitedly.

Chen Guiliang said, "Didn't I tell you to call me in advance so I could pick you up from the airport?"

"No need to trouble you, haha. We have military training in a few days. I've never had military training before; when I entered high school, there was SARS, and all the military training was canceled," Tao Xue said.

Chen Guiliang said, "Buy more sanitary napkins and stuff them in as insoles."

"There's such a way?" Tao Xue found it very novel.

Chen Guiliang said, "If you're worried about your skin, you can buy some sunscreen to keep on hand."

“Okay, whatever you say,” Tao Xue said excitedly today. “I’ve completed the enrollment procedures and I’m in the dorm now. I’ve been assigned to the second floor, so I don’t have to climb too many stairs… I’ve arrived at my dorm room, and there are already two roommates and a parent there… I’ll hang up now, I need to chat with my roommates.”

Chen Guiliang shook his head and chuckled; he could understand Tao Xue's excitement.

Who isn't excited on their first day of university?
After explaining the situation at ByteDance, Chen Guiliang went downstairs to Game Science.

He first took a look around the art team, which now has 8 people, including technical artists (not including the artists in the future studio). That's a very high percentage!

There's no other way; besides selling memberships and items, the only way for "Three Kingdoms Kill" to make money is by selling Three Kingdoms Show items and general skins.

"Is the SP Sun Shangxiang drawing finished?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Xu Fengyin said with her head down, "The basic design is finished, but the paid skins are still being drawn."

Chen Guiliang asked in confusion, "What's wrong with you? Ever since I took you home last time, you seem to be afraid of me. You always keep your head down when you see me."

"It's nothing, I'm just feeling a little unwell." Xu Fengyin was a little shy, but mostly embarrassed.

The scenes she imagined were a bit wild, and now every time she sees Chen Guiliang, she can't help but imagine herself in them.

Chen Guiliang said, "If you're not feeling well, you can take leave and get yourself back in shape."

"Well, thank you, boss."

"Take your time drawing, it won't bother you."

Chen Guiliang turned and headed to Future Studio. The development of "Future Era" was progressing rapidly, and the first dungeon had already been completed.

However, the specific data, fighting system, and even the game engine are still being continuously improved.

Chen Guiliang offered his condolences and then called Feng Ji to his office alone.

"You're pretty familiar with all the aspects of making the game now, right?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Feng Ji replied, "I have a good understanding of everything. I have learned a lot in the past six months."

Chen Guiliang asked, "If you were in charge of the 'My Own Swordsman' project, could you handle it?"

"Huh? Why would the boss choose me?" Feng Ji was extremely surprised.

As a newcomer, he himself didn't believe he could do well.

Chen Guiliang said, "Wulin Gaiden is too famous. If an experienced person were to be in charge, the game would likely be mediocre and slick. A newcomer like you is more likely to innovate and make the game stand out from the players."

Feng Ji hesitated and said, "I'm afraid I'll mess up the project."

Chen Guiliang said, "I will hire a mediocre but skilled person with all-around abilities to be your assistant. You understand what I mean?"

"I understand. Make up for my weaknesses, but let me make the decisions when it matters." Feng Ji has a strong ability to understand.

Chen Guiliang made a request: "Innovation is fine, but it can't be done recklessly. In particular, the world view and characters in the game cannot conflict with the TV series 'My Own Swordsman'. Because it may provoke the resentment of TV series fans."

"Understood!" Feng Ji nodded solemnly; he had already decided to accept this glorious mission.

Moreover, Mr. Chen trusts me too much; he's practically my mentor.

(End of this chapter)