Rebirth of the Wild Age

Just after the Lantern Festival, Ding Sanshi flew to Shenghai and found Song Weiyang who had returned to Shanghai from Xikang's hometown.

　　 The two met at the Time Café. Song Weiyang drank the juice and asked, "I'm so anxious, what is coming to me?"

　　 "Two things," Ding Sanshi said, "One is to ask you how to make online games, and the other is to speed up the plan to acquire NetEase shares."

　　 Song Weiyang laughed and said, "Didn't you say last year that "Journey to the West" will be launched at the end of the year? It has been several months without any movement."

Ding Sanshi reluctantly explained: "The game studio I acquired has no experience in making online games. There were too many bugs during the beta test, and the public beta was continuously postponed. I simply cancelled the project before the Spring Festival. All I overturned and re-produced "Journey to the West 2". Your "Legend" is so popular, I have to come over and learn from the experience."

Song Weiyang said: "The products are all the same. Identify the audience group and develop according to this group. "Western Journey" is a 2d turn-based online game. You can learn more about the successful experience of "Stone Age". Summarize the aspects that the other party did not do well."

"I mean operation and promotion," Ding Sanshi said. "Other game agency companies also learn from "Legend" to promote Internet cafes, but the one that really hits the mark is "Legend." , Now it’s dying, I really don’t understand the promotion of "Legend"."

Song Weiyang laughed and said: "The core gameplay of "Legend" is very simple, that is, killing monsters and upgrading equipment. Its essence is rude and simple, which can attract countless people who have never played games before. Another essence is social interaction, which is good brothers meeting. To hack people, the game environment is a bit like the Hong Kong movie "Young and Dangerous" in the past. But a turn-based game like "Westward Journey" is not suitable for the young and Dangerous route. You have to find another way."

　　 Ding Sanshi sat up straight, and listened carefully: "Tell me."

　　 Song Weiyang said: "The "Westward Journey" can be a little bit more leisurely and entertaining, so that it can attract a lot of girls. If there are a lot of female players in a game, don't you worry about no male players entering the pit?"

　　 "Yes!" Ding Sanshi patted his thigh fiercely.

　　 This kind of marketing method appeared very early. For example, the song and dance halls in the 1990s were very popular, resulting in more and more numbers and lower and lower fees. The industry competition was extremely fierce. So some song and dance hall owners came up with a good way to publicize that girls do not charge tickets and can go in for free for as long as they want. As the number of girls increased, men would be moved by the wind, and this pattern quickly spread across the country.

　　 Ding Sanshi, who often goes to the disco bar, is naturally very familiar with this business model, so Song Weiyang now knows it all.

　　 Song Weiyang asked: "What about NetEase's stock?"

Ding Sanshi smiled bitterly: "The stock price has fallen to 16 cents, and a large number of stockholders have collectively filed a lawsuit on the grounds that the false financial report was released last year. Originally on New Year's Day, NetEase's stock price had returned from 60 cents back to $1 because of the investment. The news of the class action lawsuit was exposed, and it fell directly from $1 to 16 cents. It has been a month and a half, and the trading volume of NetEase stock has been zero. If this continues, I am afraid that it will be delisted by Nasdaq."

　　 "For a stock price of 16 cents, that's something you can do." Song Weiyang was quite happy.

　　 Song Weiyang, along with Duan Yongping’s friends, and Taurus Capital, have acquired 10% of the shares of other shareholders last year, at a price of about 80 cents. Now it’s even cooler. The stock price fell to 16 cents, which is a great opportunity to buy from the stock market.

　　 Another time and space, Ding Sanshi naturally did not know Song Weiyang. He found Duan Yongping, a senior at the University of Science and Technology of China, during the Spring Festival.

　　 Firstly, I asked Duan Yongping about commercial marketing issues to prepare for the launch of "A Big Story Westward Journey 2"; secondly, I asked Duan Yongping for his help and spent some spare money to buy NetEase stocks, in order to get rid of the dilemma of zero trading volume.

　　 At that time, Duan Yongping only spent US$2 million to buy a 5.05% stake in NetEase. A few months later, he poured money in (at this time the stock price was close to US$2), raising his personal shareholding ratio to 6.8%. One and a half years later, NetEase's stock price rose to 70 U.S. dollars, and the investment of several million U.S. dollars turned into 150 million U.S. dollars.

　　 At this moment, Song Weiyang gave an order, and Taurus Capital immediately went to Nasdaq to scan the goods, and several other friends who were willing to invest also followed.

The ever-increasing single-day trading volume has caused NetEase’s stock price to grow rapidly, from 16 cents to 92 cents. Its shareholding structure has become: Ding Sanshi (51%), Song Weiyang (11.2%), Taurus Capital (16.5) , Duan Yongping (5.5%), others (15.8%).

　　 According to the number of shares held by Song Weiyang and Jinniu Capital, by the end of next year, NetEase stock alone will be worth at least US$700 million.

　　 Historically, NetEase’s stock price was really not made by Wall Street investors. Due to the negative news of this stock, it has always been regarded as a junk stock, and its stock price has been hovering below $1 for a long time. So when the third-quarter financial report was released in 2002, its excellent performance was immediately targeted by many ordinary shareholders, who bought it like cabbage, and then it skyrocketed nearly 70 times all the way!

　　Of course, it is also due to the background of peers. Many Internet stocks are dying. Suddenly one stock is thriving, and it will naturally become a firefly in the night.

　　 This also has a lot to do with Ding Sanshi’s operation. Since the news of false financial reports was exposed, he has completely reduced the amount of advertisements to save money, and at the same time adopts a very conservative financial reporting method. How conservative is it? Monternet’s business requires the funds to be included in the income before it is included in the income. The point cards in the chat rooms and games, even if they have been sold, will still see the money on the account, but the point card must be used up before being included in the received account.

　　 After making money in "Western Journey 2", Ding Sanshi immediately paid stockholders' class action settlement fee in one lump sum. This news attracted small-scale attention from American stockholders. Then he took advantage of the release of the financial report to elaborate on NetEase's conservative financial statistics method, and sincerely apologized to American stockholders to ensure that NetEase will not have such a thing in the future.

　　 In an instant, there was performance, attention, and reputation, and the stock price skyrocketed immediately.

　　 Different from Ding Sanshi’s conservativeness, Sina and Sohu both choose to brag, and their earnings reports are more radical than each. Throughout 2002, Netease almost stopped advertising on a large scale, and Ding Sanshi disappeared directly from the public eye; while Sohu and Sina took the opportunity to advertise wildly, seeming to think that NetEase is dying, they can't wait to rush to seize the vacancy. market share.

　　 In the first session of the West Lake Forum, several major Internet leaders said that the environment is not good, and Internet companies need to calm down and practice their internal skills. But only Ding Sanshi and Ma Xiaoyun did this. The others either resigned sadly, or were still doing the same things as they did during the dot-com bubble.

　　 Zhang Chaoyang is still floating now, constantly appearing in the public eye, and all kinds of advertisements are flying. However, this has also achieved results. First, Monternet’s revenue has continued to rise, and second, Sohu’s stock price has remained stable. There is basically no financial pressure, but the disadvantage is that it has not yet found its core business in the future.

　　 In other words, Sohu’s core business also has it, which is the alumni record that Song Weiyang personally renamed to "Renren.com." However, the operating cost of "Renren.com" is very high, and it has not found a suitable profit point for the time being, so that other shareholders have no confidence in this, and have repeatedly asked Zhang Chaoyang to abandon the "Renren.com" project.

　　 If it weren’t for Song Weiyang’s persistent insistence, with Zhang Chaoyang’s character, he might have given up, or would not continue to invest a lot of money.

　　 can also be said to be kidnapped by capital. Sohu in history is like that. Many projects that will make a lot of money in the future, Sohu started working very early, but found that half of it was too costly. Under the tremendous pressure of the board of directors, they gradually abandoned them halfway.

　　 Of course, Zhang Chaoyang himself has a big problem. From the very beginning, he likes to hype blogging attention, and he really regards himself as a big star. Especially after 2008, Zhang Chaoyang’s personal prestige reached its extreme. Sohu’s performance and stock price surpassed Sina for the first time. For the next year, Zhang Chaoyang played in various ways, even not answering the phone or replying to executive text messages. He took care of him, and he himself ran to climb mountains, play yachts, engage in partying with the stars, even appeared on fashion cover magazines, and even held a private party on the top floor of Sohu Building.

　　 After playing this year, a large number of Sohu executives left, such as Gong Yu, who later founded iQiyi, who was serving as Sohu's COO at the time.

　　 Zhang Chaoyang found himself completely surpassed by his opponent. Then he went crazy again. In order to increase profitability, the user experience of Sohu products was extremely poor in various short-terms. Under such circumstances, he turned himself into depression, and the company slid into the abyss without returning.

　　 In the years when Zhang Chaoyang was floating in the cloud, Sohu coo, cfo, Sohu video ceo, Sohu.com editor-in-chief and other executives resigned successively. What Youku, iQiyi, Kuliu, Miaopai...The founders of these companies all resigned from Sohu. This is only in the video field. It can be seen that Sohu's talents were abundant in those days.

　　 These are all things in the future. From the current point of view, apart from the love of hype and the lack of determination, Zhang Chaoyang is generally quite normal. Gu Yongjiang, Sohu's top general, and Zhang Chaoyang are also in a tacit understanding, and the two are working together to spend the Internet winter.

　　 Song Weiyang will not take any action right now. If Gu Yongjiang resigns like Yuan Shikong, then he will stand up. At that time, Song Weiyang will probably take Zhang Chaoyang upright, or force him to resign, so that this guy will reflect on it behind closed doors for a period of time.

　　 People will change slowly, and those who are not determined will become more powerful.

　　 Take Baidu as an example. A few years before Li Yanhong started his business, he delegated various powers to his subordinates. He only focused on the general direction. But later, the consensus of the Internet industry was: Baidu has only the number one person, and there will never be the number two person, and Baidu's CEO has become a joke.

　　 Well, UU Kanshu www.uukanshu.com Baidu has already started to do a search website at this time.

　　 When Li Yanhong first founded Baidu, he had been doing search services. To put it bluntly, he was providing search technology to other websites. Perhaps because it has accumulated enough funds, Baidu is now beginning a full-scale transformation and is competing with Ding Ming's Sogou for business, but for the time being, it is still regarded as a little brother.

　　...

　　 Taurus Capital did not spend too much money on the acquisition of NetEase shares. Under Song Weiyang's instructions, most of the spare money left by Taurus Capital was used to buy the bottom of Amazon, and soon became a minority shareholder of Amazon with a 0.58% stake.

　　 When Amazon's stock price picks up, this weak 0.58% share will only make a lot more than investing in NetEase.

　　 Just as Taurus Capital was buying the bottom, Song Weiyang successively held conference calls with the executives of the major companies in which he held shares to discuss the development direction of the new year, and then went straight to Huadu as a teacher for the emba class.

　　 Many students from Taurus Business School are eagerly looking forward to the arrival of Dr. Ma.