My capital is quite large.

As June arrives, the early summer in Shenzhen is already unbearably hot and humid.

In the spacious office area of ​​Haofeng Network in the Science and Technology Park, the central air conditioning was running at full blast, but the forehead of the technical director, Lao Chen, was covered with fine beads of sweat.

He held a freshly printed operational data report in his hand, standing in Li Feng's private office, looking somewhat uneasy.

"Mr. Li... The Java version of Angry Birds has been available on major Symbian forums and in the in-app stores of mobile carriers for three days now."

Old Chen swallowed hard, his voice trailing off. "The response... can only be described as lukewarm. The estimated downloads in the first week will barely break 10,000, but the second-day retention rate is less than 15%. Many Nokia users have reported that using the physical navigation keys to control the slingshot's direction feels too stiff, making it difficult to accurately hit those pigs."

Old Chen lowered his head, bracing himself for his boss's furious wrath.

After all, this is the company's first flagship product, into which they have poured all their efforts since its inception.

A lukewarm reception upon launch is a heavy blow to any startup team.

He could already foresee how low the morale would be among the programmers in the outside office area who were eagerly awaiting news.

However, the expected slamming of documents and angry outbursts did not occur.

"Okay, put it there."

Li Feng leaned back in his boss's chair, his gaze not lingering on the dismal data report, but casually flipping through another project proposal in his hand.

"Mr. Li, this..." Old Chen was stunned, looking up at his boss with disbelief. "You're not angry?"

Why should I be angry?

Li Feng put down the documents in his hand and looked at the astonished Old Chen. "The physical feedback of keypad phones is inherently counterintuitive. Pressing the '4' button to pull back and pressing the '5' button to fire—this counterintuitive operating logic means you can't experience the satisfying feeling of a physics engine collision. Low retention rate is the hardware's fault, not your code's fault."

Old Chen was even more confused by his boss's almost absolving-of-fact remarks: "Then our game is...?"

"Old Chen, I said from the beginning that the Nokia version was just to let the team practice and get some hard-earned money."

"The real trigger for this little bird has never been those candybar phones covered in plastic buttons. It's waiting for its era, and that era will come soon."

Li Feng, of course, remained calm.

Apple's App Store will officially launch in less than a month.

Those who haven't experienced the original iPhone's touchscreen swipe will never understand the feeling of resistance and the exhilarating release when you directly touch the screen and pull back like a slingshot!

From the very first second of its development, the soul of Angry Birds has been deeply intertwined with Apple's capacitive touchscreen.

The current downturn is merely the inevitable darkness before dawn.

"Alright, stop looking so gloomy. Go out and reassure the staff. Tell them that bonuses will be paid as usual, the company has plenty of money in its accounts, it won't collapse."

Li Feng waved his hand, "How's the progress on 'Fishing Master'?"

Mentioning the new project, Lao Chen quickly composed himself and said seriously, "The underlying framework is already set up, and the materials provided by the art department are very detailed. However, in order to ensure that dozens of fish swimming on the same screen at the same time do not lag, we need to do a lot of algorithm optimization. Conservatively speaking, it will take about three months, that is, September, to produce a highly completed first version."

"Three months...September, the timing is just right."

Li Feng nodded thoughtfully.

Three months later, it was the golden window of opportunity when the App Store's initial ecosystem began to take shape and the first wave of smartphone users urgently needed high-quality games to fill the void.

"Keep things on this pace, get busy."

Old Chen left the office with a sigh of relief.

After closing the office door, Li Feng turned on his computer and pulled up the company's financial statements.

After deducting the expenses for setting up the company, the prepaid rent for the first six months, the high salaries paid to poach employees, and the reserve funds for research and development in the coming months, he currently has more than 18 million yuan in readily available cash.

The money seems like a lot, but Li Feng knows that once the smartphone era truly takes off, all those tens of millions spent on global marketing, channel management, and even buying overseas user traffic will be for naught.

"Once Angry Birds and Fishing Joy are launched on the Apple App Store, the initial organic traffic will definitely be insufficient, and there will be a need for strong external traffic generation methods."

Li Feng took out a pen and unconsciously drew circles on the draft paper.

Should we buy a traditional portal website like Google? Or post advertorials on Baidu Tieba and forums?

Too expensive, and the conversion rate is too low.

"The best advertisements are never blatant ads, but rather seamless integrations into everyday life..."

A thought suddenly flashed through Li Feng's mind.

Product placement in film and television!

Who were the initial users of smartphones? They were urban young people and college students who pursued fashion and were open to new things.

If you can have the main character in a popular urban youth drama with a precise target audience constantly holding a full touchscreen phone and playing Angry Birds like crazy, this kind of subtle marketing is definitely more effective than spending millions to buy banner ads on websites!

The problem is that nowadays, the threshold for product placement in well-known, big-budget films and TV series is ridiculously high.

If he were to invest the little money he had, he could at most get a thank-you note in the end credits.

"I don't need a big production... What I need is a low-budget blockbuster without a star-studded cast but with the potential to spread terrifyingly among young people."

Li Feng's eyes gradually became burning. A name that would become almost legendary on the internet in later generations, but was penniless during the preparation period, flashed through his mind like lightning.

He immediately picked up the landline on the table and dialed the administrative director's internal line.

"Director Zhao, please come to my office."

Less than a minute later, the smartly dressed executive director walked in: "Mr. Li, you wanted to see me?"

"Use your connections in the industry to help me find out about a film and television project."

Li Feng placed his hands on the table with certainty, "It should be a project being prepared by a young director or screenwriting team from the Shanghai Theatre Academy. The subject matter is an urban youth sitcom, and they are probably running into obstacles in trying to attract investment right now."

Director Zhao paused for a moment, somewhat surprised that her game company boss had suddenly become interested in the film and television industry, but she still nodded professionally: "Okay, Mr. Li, do you have a specific project name?"

"iPartment"

At this point in time, this sitcom, which is about to sweep across the nation's young generation, is probably still just a script gathering dust on the desks of bosses at major film and television companies.

The entire production team consisted of recent graduates, and they could only afford to rent cheap indoor studios for the scenes. They were outrageously poor.

"Find out where they are now and book them plane tickets immediately."

Li Feng stood up, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, and looked down at the Shenzhen Science Park under the blazing sun.

"My little bird needs a gust of east wind to take flight. I'll borrow that wind from Shanghai."