Restart life

Chapter 528, page 0516: [Can you imagine WeChat integrating with Alipay?]

Compared to the rapid development of "Oracle Era" in South Korea, the situation in the US and Japanese markets is much more complicated.

Yuko's Japanese subsidiary is simply unable to effectively promote MOBA games.

It doesn't matter who plays it; this entire game genre simply isn't popular with Japanese players.

After investigating the Japanese market, Riot Games even chose to abandon it altogether. Only Chen Guiliang was stubborn enough to let Youke invest heavily in establishing a Japanese subsidiary.

The game "Oracle Era" has been online in Japan for three months, but it has been operating at a loss and has not been able to establish an e-sports tournament system.

On the contrary, browser games became popular!

Gamepot's Japanese subsidiary was not established out of thin air, but rather through a direct acquisition of the loss-making Gamepot company.

This company currently operates games such as "Granado Espada," but the number of online players has been declining. It also operates several browser games, which are similarly not very profitable.

After discovering that Oracle Era was also struggling financially, Kohei Sugino, CEO of the Japanese subsidiary, was under immense pressure.

So, Chen Guiliang threw over the reskinned web game he had already prepared.

After personally trying out the game, Kohei Sugino was thrilled, but also felt that the game's development was inadequate. Therefore, he applied to the Chinese headquarters to further localize the browser game.

First, the game character needs to be changed. The character the player plays must have a noble bloodline—just look at Japanese anime.

But the game was already finished, and there was no way to make major changes.

The game is set up as follows: A Japanese otaku (or office worker, optional) discovers a magatama necklace in his home and learns he has noble blood. The magatama is accidentally stained with the player's blood, transporting him back to Japan's Sengoku period to fight for supremacy. Along the way, he collects warlords and beauties, eventually becoming the shogun.

The name of this browser game was also changed to "Toki wo Chaoeru Yabou" (超時空野望).

Next, Kohei Sugino changed the game interface because the interface created by Yuke was too aggressive. He wanted to make it more otaku-friendly, cuter, and more Japanese-style.

Some of the game's dialogue and character descriptions also need to be changed.

Finally, a well-known voice actor was invited to provide the voiceover.

Qu Guohao walked into the chairman's office with a beaming smile: "The movie 'Time Travel Ambition' is a hit in Japan, and its revenue reached 3 million yen last month! The subsidiary has decided to increase its investment in promotion."

Marketing costs for web games are very high. Revenue is roughly reduced by 30%, and net profit is reduced by another 60%. (The above data does not include game production costs.)

A browser game can generate 3 million yen in monthly revenue, with a net profit of approximately 650 million RMB for that month.

Chen Guiliang nodded and said, "That's right."

Seeing Chen Guiliang's lukewarm reaction, Qu Guohao assumed his boss wasn't quite satisfied and quickly said, "It's only been a month since it launched, and it's already a huge hit. It'll definitely be even more popular next month. Besides, PC browser games are a niche market in Japan, and we're carving out a bloody path in this niche market!"

In Japan's game market, there are currently two main categories that dominate.

The first is traditional single-player games.

Second, mobile social networking browser games.

The second type, in particular, involves using a feature phone to play WAP website social games and making the gacha system extremely popular.

How crazy are Japanese players about gacha pulls?

This year, there has been a lot of news coverage in Japan about this, with reports of middle school students spending millions of yen a month on gacha pulls.

Due to the extremely negative social impact, the Japanese Consumer Affairs Agency has just issued a decree classifying Kompu Gacha (complete gashapon) as an illegal business activity.

It is considered gambling.

How outrageous is Kompu Gacha?
For example, a hero (or item) is broken down into several parts, and each part requires a card draw. Only by collecting all the parts can a complete hero (or item) be assembled.

If the probability of a single part dropping is 1%, then the theoretical probability of collecting all five parts is one in ten billion!

Furthermore, there's the sunk cost, which compels players to keep drawing cards. For example, if I finally collect all four parts and only have one left, I'll spend all my resources to get it. Otherwise, wouldn't all my previous draws be wasted?
What's more, Japanese game companies don't disclose the specific drop rates. Who knows what the drop rates are?

The Japanese Consumer Affairs Agency has banned this extreme gacha system.

The normal gacha mode is not prohibited.

However, the gacha games that are popular in Japan are all mobile browser games.

At that time in Japan, PC browser games were a very niche market. Moreover, they were mostly small games, and due to low production costs, the art assets were very low-quality and repetitive.

The future developers of "Kantai Collection" are currently jumping around in this field, and their main business is - yellow-themed web games.

If Chen Guiliang's "Time and Space Ambition" were taken to the Japanese market at that time, it would be a complete game-changer!
The competitors are a bunch of mobile WAP web games, as well as low-cost, low-quality PC web games.

It's like a max-level hero storming into a beginner's village.

Chen Guiliang lamented, "What I really want to do is promote 'Oracle Era' in Japan. Sigh, what's the point of a browser game becoming popular?"

"At least it will allow the Japanese subsidiary to break even, and in the future it may even be profitable," Qu Guohao said. "As for promoting 'Oracle Era,' we'll take it slowly. Japan doesn't have a target audience for this type of game."

Chen Guiliang said, "Let them run wild. I reckon Sugino Kohei has already tasted success and will focus all his efforts on developing PC web games from now on, with no interest in promoting 'Oracle Era' at all. Damn it, we can't do that in America."

Qu Guohao smiled and said, "We can't rush it."

The US subsidiary that Youke established last year is in a similar situation to its Japanese subsidiary.

However, in the US, they make a fortune from casual games.

Yuke acquired the North American licenses for games like *Plants vs. Zombies*, *Minecraft*, and *Candy Crush Saga* for a fee. Under CEO John Yokoyama's management, these casual games saw a surge in profits. However, North America, the home turf of *League of Legends*, presented a significant challenge for *Oracle Era*. Regardless of its quality, it was widely regarded as a copy of *League of Legends*.

Chen Guiliang said, "We should also pay attention to the Southeast Asian market."

Qu Guohao said, "The Southeast Asian market is very complex, with too many countries and ethnic groups, and different customs and habits. Moreover, League of Legends has already gained an advantage, so we can only take it one step at a time."

Youke's Southeast Asian subsidiary, headquartered in Singapore, officially launched "Oracle Era" earlier this year. However, the promotional results have not been very good.

However, "My Own Swordsman" is showing signs of explosive growth in the Southeast Asian market thanks to the operation of its subsidiary.

It's quite outrageous.

Yuke's subsidiaries around the world are developing in ways that completely contradict Chen Guiliang's vision. And yet, they're all making money!
The reason they were all able to make money was that Chen Guiliang personally selected the CEOs of those subsidiaries and generously awarded them stock options.

Take Wu Zhenhao, the CEO of the South Korean subsidiary, for example. He was a senior executive poached from Blizzard Korea by Chen Guiliang at great expense.

……

Everything seemed to be thriving.

Chen Guiliang even had the leisure to go to the Peking University Library to look up information and see if he could write the sixth volume of "Those Things of the Ming Dynasty".

He felt that his obsessive-compulsive disorder would flare up one day if he didn't finish writing this book.

Because students often approached him while he was collecting and excerpting materials, and even some teachers tried to get close to him, Chen Guiliang simply made a sign that read, "Focus on reading, no disturbances please."

Sure enough, there was much less interference.

"Still busy?" Bian Guanyue's voice sounded from behind.

Chen Guiliang asked, "Is the thesis finished?"

Bian Guanyue said, "It has been officially submitted, and I'm just waiting for the defense."

"I need your help just in time. Take photos of all the document pages I've bookmarked and number them with your phone." Chen Guiliang treated her as free labor.

The two were having a great time in the library, and it brought back some of the feeling of studying back in the day.

A few Peking University students occasionally pay attention to them, and even secretly take photos of them together, and then casually post them on Weibo.

Bian Guanyue's identity has long been exposed, but netizens only know that she is Chen Guiliang's girlfriend and apparently a graduate student at Peking University. All other information is denied.

Just as they finished gathering information and returned home, Chen Guiliang received a WeChat message: Tencent's Zhangxun announced a partnership with Alipay.

Chen Guiliang was visibly taken aback when he saw the message.

As a reborn individual, what was his reaction upon seeing this news? WeChat integrates with Alipay!
It's kind of like a hellish joke.

The current situation is:

ByteDance's WeChat competes with Tencent's PalmInfo.

ByteDance and Youke's Youpay are competing with Alibaba's Alipay.

Clearly, Tencent and Alibaba were forced to join forces in order to deal with a common enemy.

Tencent is too difficult to deal with!

Last year, ByteDance's WeChat pioneered the voice messaging feature. Tencent's PalmNews followed suit just a month later, indicating that Tencent had been developing this feature for some time.

ByteDance's WeChat has integrated with HaiNei.com, XiaoNei.com, ByteDance Weibo, Xiami Music, Mtime.com, Tudou.com, AcFun, ByteDance Maps...

Tencent's PalmInfo integrates Tencent Portal, QQ, QQ Zone, Tencent Weibo, QQ Music, Tencent Video, Tencent Maps, and more...

ByteDance's WeChat has Youpay.

Tencent's mobile app now includes Alipay.

Fortunately, ByteDance has another powerful weapon.

Chen Guiliang dialed Dai Zhikang's number: "Has Discuz! not made a one-click app generation tool yet?"

Dai Zhikang said, "We're already testing it, but there are still some bugs that need to be fixed. And even if we release it now, the functionality won't be perfect."

"Let's speed things up," Chen Guiliang said.

Once a one-click app generation tool is developed, ByteDance's WeChat can leverage the vast network of Discuz! website owners. These website owners' apps can be transformed into WeChat mini-programs, and ByteDance can further promote WeChat and Youpay through these website owners.

Chen Guiliang hung up the phone and dialed again: "The WeChat red envelope function can be launched now. Also, contact the CCTV Spring Festival Gala preparation team; I want to spend a lot of money on red envelopes during the 2013 Spring Festival Gala!"

Advertising bidding and contract signing for the Spring Festival Gala must be finalized at least six months in advance.

It's too late; we'll have to wait until next year's Spring Festival Gala.

Bian Guanyue asked, "What is a WeChat red envelope?"

Chen Guiliang said, "It's about sending red envelopes via WeChat."

Bianguanyue: "..."

"Haha, you'll see when the red envelope feature goes live," Chen Guiliang laughed.

(End of this chapter)