The next day, Gu Kun used his free time before returning to Lanzhou to receive several business visitors on the "Zhu Sen".
"It's a great honor for Mr. Gu to take time out of his busy schedule." Both Ma Feng and Bao Yue, the boss of Zhonglian Games, have a very low profile and are very humble when they meet.
This is also due to the current situation. After all, it is the deepest winter of the Internet. This level of coldness can remain for at least a year and a half before it eases slightly. However, after the so-called "ease", it is still considered "winter". According to historical
According to the trend, it will take another year and a half before "winter" is completely over.
One winter is more than three years.
"You two are very polite. You have nothing to do with your busy schedule - I was busy a while ago, and that was also for charity work. I will go back to Lanfang in the next few days. If you don't mind that I have left you alone for so many days, that's enough.
.Anyway, we won’t talk about your internal operations today, but only about planning and outlook, so we can talk to everyone about everything. Let’s have a few drinks together.” Gu Kun seemed very approachable and his hospitality was very thoughtful.
If he wants to talk to Ma Feng about Ali Baba's specific operations, he should definitely avoid Bao Yue and prevent him from having too much access to Ali's business secrets. The same goes for the opposite.
But just bragging and asking for money, talking about development plans, it doesn't matter, just brainstorming. In later generations, the "Jiangnan Club" and "Taishan Club" often had a group of big bosses chatting and brainstorming internally.
Among the two, Ma Feng was the more trouble-making, so he was the first to take over the conversation: "Then I won't be polite. I'll start by telling you how I plan to save money recently. Maybe it will inspire me. If Lao Bao has
If you have any great opinions, please interrupt me at any time."
Bao Yue just smiled and expressed his respect for the teachings.
After all, Ma Feng is from a business background, and he is better at getting things done than most other Internet company founders in China - Bao Yue studied undergrad at Ark University, Department of Computer Science, Academy of Mathematics, and with other ponies, Boss Li
, Souhu and Zhang Chaoyang are both engaged in computers and mathematics.
It can only be said that Ma Feng, a person who only wrote the word "ji" in mathematics for the first time in the college entrance examination and got 1 point, later became a legend in the Internet industry. It is really due to his ability to recognize people. Search everywhere
In the entire circle, there is really no other founder like him who is a layman to technology.
Then Ma Feng set the scene and mentioned that he was going to clear out all the office space in Hujiang.
"Brother Gu, I thought about it. The current situation will not get better in two years. The development speed of the 2b business end cannot keep up with the growth of our office expenses. Therefore, the office space in Ark City will be enough in the next few years.
, the rents for office buildings here in Hujiang are generally too expensive, so it’s time to cut them off.
If you deal with it this way, I can at least ensure that the money you previously invested can be used for at least three years until 2004. However, if there are new business growth points, I still hope you will take a look at it and see if there is a future.
Add some additional funds.”
As Ma Feng talked, he also took the initiative to show some of the company's financial accounts to Gu Kun. Obviously, he came prepared for today.
Gu Kun almost never checked the accounts, and he felt a little awkward when he saw Ma Feng's attitude: "This is obvious, isn't it? The one who can do it but doesn't control it wins. I don't understand financial things either. Take away the details."
, the most I can do is take a look at how much money is left in the account, I believe you."
Of course, if there is an opportunity, Gu Kun will definitely let professional people keep a close eye on him, and sometimes Cai Chongxin will occasionally contact him to report, but Gu Kun's principle is not to take the initiative to check the accounts before there are no abnormalities, especially when using reborn people
With foresight and foresight to know the ethics of entrepreneurs.
In fact, if the butterfly effect is wrong, it can only be admitted. Compared with the unity buff brought by trust, Gu Kun feels that this can be let go.
The two parties chatted in depth for a while, and Ma Feng increasingly felt Gu Kun's trust and kindness, so there was nothing more to do.
After Gu Kun dealt with Ma Feng, he turned to Bao Yue from Zhonglian Games and said: "Boss Bao, I think Ma Ge's idea of dealing with the company's burn rate is worthy of reference by colleagues during the Internet winter.
You should also use your brains to save costs and stop spending too much money. Your company is headquartered in the capital, right? The rent in Zhongguancun, the capital, is more expensive than here in Hujiang."
Gu Kun still has to beat Bao Yue. After all, Bao Yue has not always done well in his later generations. It can only be said that before 2005, Bao Yue’s Zhonglian Game Platform was the number one among domestic Internet entertainment platform products.
——The user reach rate is very high, which of course does not mean profit.
The profit is definitely higher than that of Shengda in the same period, and companies like Jiucheng that sell card-based online games are much higher. After all, Zhonglian is just a free platform for playing cards and mahjong online. At that time, there was no business model that could be seen, and it was just a compliment.
With a large number of users, it cannot be monetized.
The biggest failure of Zhonglian was that after 2005, as other competitors came across the circle to intervene in the "playing mahjong/fighting landlords" and other businesses, Zhonglian did not do well due to product experience, queuing and matching, etc., and soon
It was crushed by platforms that took advantage of more users.
Based on the other party's historical performance, Gu Kun could only evaluate him as "he woke up early and was a pioneer, but he was confused in an era without rivals and didn't know how to optimize himself." Such an entrepreneur would naturally not be able to follow
Trust someone like Ma Feng unconditionally.
Bao Yue looked at his words and saw that Gu Kun seemed to trust Ma Feng more than him, and he was a little unwilling to do so.
Hum, although Ma Feng and he have some friendship from the same hometown, in terms of products and business, how can the future of that online supplier advertising model for companies be compared with that of a national entertainment industry platform like his?
When Gu Kun obtained a large share of Zhonglian Games from Yingke Digital/HSBC Bank two years ago, Zhonglian Games only had a scale of several hundred thousand users.
Although it is winter now, the number of Zhonglian users has expanded to more than 10 million!
You must know that the number of active users of QQ during the same period was only more than 20 million, so this number is already very strong. The number of registered accounts of QQ is 50 to 60 million, but those are not active users, and many of them are one person with multiple accounts.
Just apply for fun.
The strongest paid card game companies, such as "Stone Age" and "Legend", only had a few hundred thousand paying users by the end of 2001.
In addition, Bao Yue came to Gu Kun this time with the intention of expanding his business and asking for money. When Gu Kun was talking to him about cutting costs, he definitely couldn't agree directly, otherwise the tone would be wrong.
Bao Yue resisted a few words incoherently, and finally took an opportunity to politely express his refusal:
"Mr. Gu, Xiaoma and I are in different business fields, and the experience that applies to him may not apply to me. I am a gamer, especially a first-time pathfinder like me. I combine the headquarters and main offices.
If the R&D team is located in the capital, it can gain better exposure in front of the competent authorities and receive more care.
This is an industry that is very dependent on policy. If the country says the game is legal, it is legal. If the country says it is illegal, we have to adjust our product structure. So it is almost unrealistic to move to other cities in the cold winter. We are either in Zhongguancun, or... we are not.
Other options.”
Gu Kun listened quietly and did not object directly. He was not concerned about the situation but the person, and his magnanimity was extraordinary. As long as what Bao Yue said made sense, Gu Kun would accept it.
The Chinese game market in 2001 was indeed at a very delicate juncture - just a year ago in 2000, because games were considered harmful to young people, the arcade and game console industries were subject to a certain degree of criticism.
blow.
Of course, the country is so big, it will definitely take time to implement it all. So as of now, after more than half a year of implementation, it only ensures that there are no game machine rooms in the urban areas of several first-tier cities in the country. As for the second-tier cities,
Only some of the more advanced and developed second-tier cities have banned game arcades.
However, the ban on game machine rooms and the ban on the sale of game consoles did not affect computer games. The Internet cafe industry also started in 2001 and embarked on a new rapid growth path in the country, because the original business forces of opening game machine rooms were
Invisible big hands are guiding the flow. The Internet cafe industry will enter a period of brutal growth for about two years. It will not be until 2003 that the scale is large enough to attract regulatory attention, and ID cards will be required to strictly investigate the indulgence of minors and illegal Internet cafes.
Game-related industries have seen new trends within a year and a half, and it is especially easy to be targeted when they get bigger. Bao Yue is worried about being plotted because he is far away from the capital, which is human nature.
"Okay, if you think it's safe to stay in the capital, then go to the capital. It's not like we can't afford the rent for an office building in Zhongguancun." Gu Kun agreed very generously.
Bao Yue saw that Gu Kun was reasonable and further persuaded: "Mr. Gu, I don't know if you understand the current situation of the game industry. At present, stand-alone games are severely suppressed by policies. Game consoles have become a gray industry. Computer games
It can be sold, but because games are generally treated in this way, the intensity of piracy is naturally more rampant than in previous years.
In the current cold winter, the only profitable Internet companies I see are those that make paid online games. "Stone Age" has been profitable for two years, with a net profit of several million yuan per quarter. There is also the newly emerged "Dragon"
", and the updated "Legend", I watched the current monthly harvest of Dragon Clan
The income is 4.5 million, which is earned by a Bayan company. There is also a domestic Korean company that bought the agency rights for "Legend". Although the current income is not as high as that of Longzu, it is already more than 3 million per month. The key is that the cost is very high.
It is low, and the cost of purchasing the agency copyright can be recovered with just one quarter of point card income.
We Zhonglian have such a large online entertainment user base, I want to increase the budget, not too much. If you invest in me enough to buy the copyright of a Korean game, a little start-up capital for servers and promotion, I guarantee you
Additional investment can make huge profits!”
Bao Yueman thought that Gu Kun would easily agree to send money.
However, unexpectedly, Gu Kun hesitated and said sincerely: "I don't like making money that harms children. In principle, I don't invest in projects with reputational risks, and I don't want to leave a bad name."
Although there are some things that Gu Kun did not do, someone will definitely go back to do them, but the initiator will definitely be targeted by the history books. What he does must be done in the spirit of learning from past mistakes and avoiding future ones, treating diseases and saving people, and cannot just take money when he sees it.