The dust has settled on Times Shipping's acquisition of China Railway Holdings Ltd., and formal procedures are underway.

"Boss, after the acquisition, we plan to let the railway company Zhua operate independently for the time being, and then merge it when the time is right." Morris, president of Times Shipping, was making a work report.

Lin Zuhui nodded and said: "Yes. Times Shipping will adopt a digital, informatized, and group-based layout, so once it adapts, it will cancel the name of Tiehang Zhahua and incorporate it into the group's system operation."

Morris said: "Yeah, I know."

Then, Morris reported: "Boss, people from the Strategy Department analyzed and pointed out that orders for shipbuilding have begun to accelerate this year, and it is expected that there will be a boom in shipbuilding in the next two years. The reason is that since 1999, global trade has accelerated its development.

Especially with the rapid economic development of the mainland; coupled with the fact that this company has a lot of old ships that need to be 'dismembered' in a few years, there may be a scarcity of ships in the future."

After hearing this, Lin Zuhui also calculated that "Times Shipping" has spent 13 billion US dollars on ordering new and sub-new ships, of which about 2 billion US dollars were purchased for sub-new ships, with a total load capacity of about 15 million tons.

The continuous acquisition of South African Shipping, Sea and Land Containers, and China Railway, plus the original Heung Kong Shipping, and Times Shipping owned and managed approximately 430 container ships, totaling 1.3 million containers; for this purpose, Times Shipping spent approximately US$3.9 billion in acquisition fees

.

It also acquired the Norwegian shipping leader Bengtsen Group and privatized it, spending a total of US$2.6 billion to hold and manage an 11 million-ton oil and gas fleet.

Last year, it entered the "aircraft leasing" field. It is expected to invest 10 billion US dollars (half of the loan) within two years, and is expected to own about 200 aircraft (one aircraft costs 300-500 million Hong Kong dollars, mainly narrow-body aircraft).

Coupled with investment in logistics, etc., nearly 30 billion US dollars have been invested in shipping throughout the era.

Lin Zuhui said decisively: "If you go to South Korea and order new ships in the mainland for US$5 billion, it doesn't matter even if the order is delivered after 2005."

Morris nodded, knowing that his boss was optimistic about the explosive period of shipping.

But he is actually a little worried, what if shipping is just a small outbreak.

The period of shipping boom is generally 5 to 8 years, but the trough is a cycle of more than 15 years.

But thinking about New Era Group's cash flow and liabilities, Morris felt there was no problem.

"Okay, let's make a comprehensive selection considering the mainland economy and the European and American economy."

"Yes, oil and gas ships and ore ships can increase the proportion."

"OK."

After Morris left, Lin Zuhui smiled. This was equivalent to a disguised 'monopoly' on shipping (16% was a monopoly).

He is not worried that the emergence of Times Shipping will affect the shipping situation from 2003 to 2008. As far as he knows, there will soon be a shortage of ships in the world, and the shipbuilding of Times Shipping will affect the shipbuilding of other companies.

Delivery speed.

At most, it’s just the impact of making 10% less money.

The shipping industry only started to fall after Lehman, and it did not plummet in a short period of time, but continued to decline for a long time, which gave Times Shipping ample time to make plans.

Times Shipping has invested a total of more than 35 billion US dollars in shipping over the past four years. It is believed that from 2003 to 2008, it will bring an average annual profit of 8 to 10 billion US dollars, not counting the early sales of ships.

profit.

Of course, what is being sold is a leased vessel. After 2008, Times Shipping still needs to maintain a certain level of strength in container and oil and gas transportation, and it is impossible to make a profit and leave.

...

Time flies and it’s May in a blink of an eye.

Friday, May 3rd.

At ten o'clock in the morning, "MapleStory" started its internal beta test in Xiangjiang, and many players in Internet cafes were already waiting.

"It's actually a pixel-style 2D game. Everyone else is making 3D games, but The9 is still making 2D games." A player couldn't help but complain after entering the game.

Soon, the player immediately began to apologize for what he had just said. In the bright game world, with game characters wearing personalized fashions and defeating various cute monsters, even players who were not interested in RPGs wanted to play it once.

.

Moreover, the maps are also rich and colorful, and all of them are free!

Although it costs a lot of money to make your character more personalized, no players will point fingers at you even if you are dressed plainly. Of course, there are also players who choose a profession where they can only fight monsters by themselves.

,so....

"A classic, produced by The Ninth City, it must be a high-quality product!"

Soon, "MapleStory" received praise from countless game fans.

........

South Korea, nexon company.

Nexon is a Korean computer game company founded in May 1995 and headquartered in Seoul, South Korea.

"President, something serious has happened!" A staff member hurried into President Jin Chengzai's office with an anxious expression on his face.

Jin Chengzai paused and asked quickly: "Is the "MapleStory" of The Ninth City in Hong Kong very close to the "MapleStory" game we are developing?"

It turns out that The9 released game plans for "MapleStory" and "Bubble Hall" as early as the beginning of the year (2002). At that time, Korean manufacturers, which had always regarded Xiangjiang Games as competitors, naturally took notice.

As a result, Nexon was shocked because "MapleStory" and "Bubble Hall" were development plans of its own game company and had been approved in the second half of 2001.

At that time, Nexon carefully compared the posters and found that the similarity was very high. Then it started research and development with all its strength. Unexpectedly, it was still lagging behind for a long time.

"Yes, the similarity is almost as high as 70 to 80%. If we publish it, we will almost be judged as plagiarism." The staff said incredulously.

"Who, who is leaking the secret?" Jin Chengzai said loudly.

The staff member said cautiously: "President, according to the three-year progress of a game development, The9 City has already established the project in at least 1999."

Jin Chengzai immediately said: "Nonsense, how can the similarity be so high? I don't believe it. I'm going to Xiangjiang to see for myself and arrange to book tickets immediately."

An Internet cafe in Xiangjiang.

Kim Sung Jae was playing "MapleStory" without tears. On his left and right sides were R&D engineers from Nexon Company, which was incredible.

"If we speed up research and development, when can we start internal testing?"

"It will take at least a year, and we will do our best. After all, joining the team temporarily requires an adaptation process!"

"Where's the Bubble Hall?"

“It will be possible in the second half of this year!”

"What's the use? Others will start internal testing next month."

"Maybe it won't be the same?"

"It's almost like looking at posters."

Jin Chengzai didn't know whether to continue research and development for a while, after all, he had already invested so much.

But if you continue to research and develop, you will easily be sued for infringement.

"Forget it, go back and make some redesign changes and continue research and development as usual." In the end, Jin Chengzai decided to take the risk and continue development.

As everyone knows, it was his decision that caused Korean games to be scorned overseas, and their overseas performance was dismal.

Of course, this is something.

.......

In May, taking advantage of the success of "MapleStory" in Hong Kong and Taiwan, The9 announced plans for "Audition" and "Martin Racing".

For a time, The9 City attracted great attention from the industry.

In The Ninth City's conference room, Lin Zuhui was having a meeting with senior executives.

He said: "Four games will be launched this year. The operations department has a very heavy task. I hope you can complete it well - the speed of overseas distribution and agency."

In the Mainland, Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States, The9 has established branches and cooperative relationships with agents early on.

There are only so many game players in Xiangjiang. If there is no overseas agent, then the game industry in Xiangjiang will be greatly affected.

Sales Department Manager Zhu Xiaowen said quickly: "Don't worry, boss, our games are very popular in Taiwan, Japan, Mainland China, and Southeast Asia. Even in Europe and the United States, we have also achieved very good results. "MapleStory" is very popular in Taiwan, Japan, Mainland China, and Southeast Asia.

Agents have been confirmed in Taiwan, Macau, and the Mainland. Next, we will first attack Japan, Southeast Asia, and South Korea, and then develop in Europe and the United States."

The9 has been established in 1994, and the overseas cooperation relationships established over the years are our confidence.

Lin Zuhui nodded and said: "I always feel that something is going to happen in South Korea, and the legal department has to keep an eye on it. If they dare to plagiarize, they must show them the color. They have plagiarized a lot in the cultural field.

Our copyright in Hong Kong is abominable."

The person in charge of the legal department said firmly: "Don't worry, boss. Once they plagiarize, we will firstly not be able to let their works go out of Korea. Secondly, we will also seriously pursue lawsuits in Korea and publish media for public opinion offensive."

Yes, unless you don’t want to go overseas, this is the current situation of Korean culture.

There are only a handful of Korean dramas in this generation that have gone global. After all, Hong Kong dramas have been popular for almost ten years.

Even Hong Kong dramas are tired in Asia, let alone Korean dramas, which are copycats.

As for the idol groups created in South Korea, they have been criticized by various Asian countries. Fans do not buy it, so they can only become popular in South Korea.

After all, Hong Kong groups have accumulated a large number of fans in Asia. It is difficult for them to betray their idols and even abuse Korean idols. The advantage of occupying the market first is huge.

What's more, Hong Kong's group has evolved into 'version 2.0', while South Korea is still in version 1.0.

Finally, Lin Zuhui said to Gao Kelin: ""Dungeon Fighter", "Street Basketball", "Cross Fire", you have to hurry up!"

"No problem, we will definitely be able to conduct internal testing within two years. After all, we have already planned the plan."

For a player who has been playing for more than a year, the outline given by Lin Zuhui is already quite good; if he also takes the time to experience it and regain some memories, then the time will be faster.
To be continued...