Restart life

Chapter 339, Section 0336: [ByteDance's Stock Price Falls Below Issue Price]

In the Chinese mindset, the new year doesn't truly begin until after the Spring Festival.

New Year's Day doesn't count.

Once the Spring Festival was over, the Olympic spirit suddenly intensified. Official promotion efforts increased, public discussion grew, and businesses frequently claimed to be Olympic partners.

Especially in the mobile phone industry, there are simply too many Olympic partners.

A whole host of upcoming new mobile phones are advertising themselves as Olympic partners. They primarily highlight their internet connectivity features, such as the ability to read Olympic news on the phone.

Chen Guiliang has partnered with a construction company recommended by the industrial park, and the land he acquired will be leveled once the demolition is completed. The demolition work is progressing relatively smoothly so far, with only a few holdout households, and the local authorities are handling those matters themselves.

The busiest person became Zhou Guangping, who flew to the United States to negotiate with Motorola's new CEO.

Zhou Guangping is leading a team of 47 people who have jumped to HarmonyOS, half of whom are people Motorola wanted to transfer back to headquarters.

Of the more than 360 people at Motorola's Beijing Research Institute, fewer than 200 were transferred back to headquarters, and dozens more were reassigned to the Tianjin Research Institute. The remaining staff stayed at the Beijing Research Institute to do less core work.

It's unclear how Zhou Guangping negotiated, but the non-compete agreement was actually abolished, and researchers were allowed to leave freely.

However, Motorola did not provide any severance pay to researchers who resigned without notice!

In addition, Zhou Guangping also applied to Chen Guiliang to buy some equipment from Motorola's Beijing Research Institute at second-hand prices.

This is a win-win situation.

Motorola's new CEO's original intention was to shut down the Beijing Research Institute, which saved them the severance pay for dozens of employees and allowed them to make use of some research equipment.

Chen Guiliang was also very satisfied with Zhou Guangping's performance; he was a very easy person to work with.

However, Zhou Guangping's shortcomings are also obvious, but they haven't manifested yet.

Zhou Guangping has a bad temper, especially when collaborating with other departments or teams. He always thinks he is right, and he loses his temper if anyone disagrees.

Moreover, the more Zhou Guangping does and the greater his achievements, the more pronounced this aspect of his character becomes.

Three words can be used to describe him: stubborn, arrogant, and unforgiving.

Lei Jun has been embarrassed by Zhou Guangping more than once.

On one occasion, when Xiaomi's suppliers came to a meeting, Zhou Guangping took the opportunity to publicly demonstrate his power. He actually occupied the meeting room during working hours to play ping-pong, making it impossible for Xiaomi's suppliers to hold a normal meeting and forcing them to temporarily use other meeting rooms.

Lei Jun has been tolerating these things.

What truly broke Lei Jun's spirits was the vice president of supply chain promoted by Zhou Guangping, who offended all of Xiaomi's suppliers, leading to a massive shortage of Xiaomi phones that year.

In a fit of anger, Lei Jun stripped Zhou Guangping of his real power, relegating him to the position of "Chief Scientist." He then promoted Zhou Shouzi to CEO, the man who later became Douyin (TikTok).

Before his rebirth, Chen Guiliang had heard about these things. At that time, he was just a bystander; now, he might become the one caught in the crossfire.

Let's cooperate for now and try to be agreeable.

If Zhou Guangping still insists on baring his teeth and getting angry, then let him be the "chief scientist"!

……

After the Spring Festival, the revenue statistics for "Future Era" in January were: 1.28 million yuan!

The revenue surged compared to December of last year, which was due to the rapid increase in the number of players and the introduction of the pet system.

Pets are not only cool and good-looking, but they can also help you clear levels.

Regular pets are available even to free-to-play players. Pet eggs have a chance to drop in various dungeons; simply bring them back to town and complete quests to hatch them.

However, high-level pet eggs can only be obtained from Abyss dungeons, and you have to spend money to hatch them quickly. If you want to get them for free, that's also possible, but the rarer the pet, the harder it is to hatch, which can make free-to-play players grind until they're practically dying.

This has spurred many free players to spend money in order to hatch rare pets.

But no one objected, and no players complained.

Because all the pets are perfectly integrated into the game's storyline, and in the original novel, each type of rare pet has its moment of glory. They evolve in the post-apocalyptic world, some actively cooperating with humans, while others are captured and domesticated.

In the original novel, each of the protagonist's pets was highly sought after by players.

Especially the main battle pets of the novel's protagonists, have an extremely low drop rate in the game. One free-to-play player managed to farm Abyss tickets and ended up with a rare, top-tier pet egg, which he sold to a wealthy player for over ten thousand RMB!
This story is widely discussed on gaming forums.

Players of games like *Legend of Mir*, *Conquer Online*, *Fantasy Westward Journey*, and *The Emperor's Reign* were utterly disdainful of this story. A top-tier pet egg for just over ten thousand yuan? Too cheap! A game for poor people.

Compared to the rapidly advancing "Future Era", "Three Kingdoms Kill" remains as stable as ever.

The peak concurrent player count of "Three Kingdoms Kill" has been steadily increasing, rising by several thousand every month, totaling around 60,000 to 70,000 per year. The problem is that it only keeps rising and never falls, which is simply outrageous for a game that has been online for only two or three years!
The current peak concurrent player count for "Three Kingdoms Kill" on non-holidays can reach 50. During holidays or when a new hero is released, the peak concurrent player count can quickly surpass 60, and even approach 70.

The monthly revenue of "Three Kingdoms Kill" has long remained above 2000 million yuan - with the increasing popularity of online payment, more people are willing to recharge.

In addition, Game Science's payment system, "Upay," not only serves its own games but also provides payment channels for ByteDance and Bailian Technology. More than 30 small and medium-sized companies, including Dingguo Technology, are also cooperating with Upay (many of which are non-exclusive partnerships).

"Youpay" has a monthly revenue of over 4000 million yuan.

There are other miscellaneous games on the gaming platform, including Plants vs. Zombies, which also contribute revenue in bits and pieces.

Game Science is making a fortune!
"Mr. Chen, ByteDance's stock price is about to fall to its IPO price." Chen Guiliang received the message just after the Lantern Festival. "I know."

During the IPO, Chen Guiliang signed an agreement with investors stipulating that if the stock price fell below the issue price by 15% within one year of listing, or by 25% within two years, a share repurchase agreement would be triggered. Furthermore, the repurchase obligation would be waived in the event of systemic risks or force majeure.

It hasn't broken the ace yet, so it's still a long way from triggering the protocol.

If all else fails, they will announce a buyback program, but raising funds will take time. Typically, the buyback will be conducted in several batches, spanning more than six months.

Chen Guiliang's first round of buybacks is just a small gesture to demonstrate his commitment. The second round will wait until the financial crisis erupts.

……

ByteDance, Game Science, and the newly established subsidiary HarmonyOS are all progressing steadily.

March has arrived in the blink of an eye, which is a week after the Lantern Festival.

The Ministry of Information Industry, which had existed for ten years, was abolished, and the powers of other departments were taken over and reorganized into the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

A few days later, the Bear Stearns crisis broke out.

This Wall Street giant, with over 80 years of history, is hailed as an "unsinkable financial aircraft carrier."

However, news suddenly broke that it was on the verge of bankruptcy, with clients withdrawing $170 billion in a single day. Not long ago, it had a market capitalization of $200 billion, but was ultimately acquired by JPMorgan Chase for a bargain price of $2.36 million.

US stocks plummet!

To prevent a systemic collapse, the Federal Reserve intervened urgently.

Shi Yuzhu called: "Our stock prices have all fallen below the issue price. I just called Chi Yufeng."

"There's nothing I can do about it, this is what happens." Chen Guiliang's tone was quite relaxed.

Shi Yuzhu asked, "You seem to have signed a repurchase agreement. Do you need me to provide funds?"

Shi Yuzhu's thinking was simple: he had high hopes for ByteDance, especially for Chen Guiliang himself. By offering buyback funds during this critical time, he could both take the opportunity to acquire a stake in ByteDance and deepen his friendship with Chen Guiliang.

Chen Guiliang smiled and said, "It's not necessary for now, but thank you for your kindness."

Shi Yuzhu said, "That's true. Your game company is very profitable, so you shouldn't be short of funds. At least you won't be short of funds for the first round of buybacks. If you need money for the second round of buybacks, you can call me anytime."

"If I need money, I'll definitely ask you for help," Chen Guiliang said.

Just after I ended the call, Chi Yufeng called again.

Chi Yufeng asked, "How are you dealing with this on your end?"

Chen Guiliang said, "Let's see how things go. Who knows what will happen in the future?"

Chi Yufeng said, "If we don't need the money, we might as well privatize it. Damn it, we finally went public and then this happened. I think the US stock market will continue to collapse."

"Haha, we'll see," Chen Guiliang laughed.

Baidu's stock price also plummeted. After the Bear Stearns crisis broke out, Baidu's stock price dropped to $200, less than half of its peak last year.

However, Baidu quickly announced a positive earnings forecast, and within just a few days, its stock price rebounded. Moreover, it rose rapidly against the market trend!
ByteDance will naturally also release a profit forecast.

In January and February:

Xiaonei.com suffered a loss of 225 million yuan in January and 166 million yuan in February.

HaiNei.com suffered a loss of 461 million yuan in January and 297 million yuan in February.

Although all of them are operating at a loss, the amount of loss has been decreasing compared to last year, and they are very likely to reach a balance of income and expenditure in the future.

Compared to the size of the two websites, they performed exceptionally well on the global SNS website landscape.

Because normally, the more users you have, the more you lose!

However, ByteDance also disclosed its mobile phone R&D plan, with an initial expenditure of 1500 million yuan. This has raised concerns among investors and shareholders, who are both skeptical of the project's potential and worried about its failure.

However, when Chinese financial media reported that Chen Guiliang was going to manufacture mobile phones, a number of experts jumped out to analyze and comment.

Professor Lang, who is essentially a freeloader in the physical sense, has long had his own television program where he analyzes all sorts of financial news.

In the program, he joked, "The year before last, everyone rushed to invest in Web 2.0, and last year they rushed to invest in e-commerce. This year, it seems that smartphones have become the hottest trend. As far as I know, at least 12 companies have announced that they are developing smartphones. Now even Chen Guiliang, who works on Web 2.0, is getting involved. It seems that the smartphone industry is about to see another bloody battle, just like the mobile phone wars of the past few years..."

"Personally, I'm not optimistic about ByteDance making phones. Does Chen Guiliang understand any aspect of the phone manufacturing process? This is even more unexpected than Meizu's shift from MP3 players to phone R&D..."

There are many such questions.

Chen Guiliang wanted to take this opportunity to make a public appearance, respond to external doubts, and promote HarmonyOS phones.

When sales channels are not yet mature, it is necessary to create momentum for your products in advance and build a fan base to lay the foundation for future product sales.

Perhaps Chen Guiliang is about to start his own monkey show.

Which media outlets should we choose for our appearances?

(End of this chapter)