Few people could understand Li Mu's decision to license the most popular cartoon image on the market at a price of one US dollar, which was infinitely close to free.
From the perspective of a negotiation expert who understood the market, if the cartoon character of the game was licensed to only one company in a single field, it would be able to earn at least a million USD based on its current popularity. Five million USD would be a piece of cake for a huge industry like fast food and beverage, and even ten million USD might not be impossible.
Why did Li Mu give up a net profit of twenty million US dollars? Even the people of Makino Technology might not really understand. They could only roughly understand that Li Mu was sacrificing profits in exchange for the greater development of this game and the game image, but they could not understand the root of Li Mu's purpose.
From the moment Makino Technology decided to set foot in the international market, Li Mu only pursued two things in the international market: big profits and strong output.
When Li Mu put forward the two ideas of big profits and strong output at the meeting, everyone stared at him intently, not daring to miss a word he said. This was because it might be related to the core development of Makino Technology and even Taobao Technology in the next few years, or even decades.
In the conference room, Li Mu said very seriously to all the core members, "The big profits I mentioned refer to the business that can really make a lot of money. Playing with concepts, speculating on the market value, value-added services, and game revenue are all big profits. On the contrary, trivial income such as advertising income and copyright income belong to the category of small profits. In the process of our future development, we must first ensure big profits, and then appropriately pursue small profits, or even give up small profits in exchange for other resources, so as to enhance the scale and expected degree of big profits. As a company, we must be clear about our priorities and know how to make choices, so as to avoid wanting both sesame seeds and watermelons, but in the end, we will make a mess of eyebrows and beards;
"For example, everyone can see that the concept of the Internet industry is far more important than short-term profit margins. Many companies that make money at the beginning either disappear after a few years, or still have a market value of tens of millions, and it is difficult to break through. However, in the Internet industry, the truly powerful companies are often the ones that have been losing money in terms of profits, but continue to multiply in terms of market value. They lose money, and even burn money at a speed that ordinary people can't believe, but why can they burn money to a market value of tens of billions? Because what they plan for is big profits in the future, and fighting side by side with them is the team that plans big profits, and it is the capital that plans big profits;
"Why do Sequoia and other investment banks chase after us, and are willing to give up all the privileges, and even give up the corresponding right to speak and voting in order to become our shareholders? Could it be that they want to invest 3.3 billion USD in us this year, take 3.5 billion USD next year, and then make a net profit of 200 million USD? Of course not. That's because they are the same as us, looking forward to big profits in a few years' time. They hope that we can burn through 3.3 billion USD as soon as possible in exchange for a higher market value. After a few years, we can reach 330 billion USD, or even higher market value. This is what they hope for, and it is the same for us. So today, we have to learn to sacrifice some small profits in front of us to lay a more solid foundation for our big profits in the future; "
Speaking up to this point, Li Mu paused for a moment before continuing, "As for strong output, this is the dream of a young man in my heart. All along, our Hua Xia market has been the 'export' party. Our internet companies have used American capital to replicate the patterns and templates of successful American companies in the Hua Xia market. Our technical personnel have used hardware and software environments made by developed countries and implemented the industry standards set by those developed countries. Our movies have been attacked by Hollywood, our animation has been attacked by Japan and Hollywood, foreign literature has flooded in, but our literature can't make it out of the Chinese market; foreign games have flooded in, but our games can't make it out of the Chinese market either. This is the awkward situation of being the 'export' party. A great country cannot be the export party of these developed countries forever. So we have to think further. While our domestic counterparts are still racking their brains on how to establish a foothold in China, we have to think about how to let our products, along with our culture, establish a foothold overseas, and let more overseas users accept, like, and even be infatuated with them. This is my dream of strong output."
"Strong output refers to the overseas export of product awareness and product culture. As the first super product produced by Hua Xia, YY represents Hua Xia's internet industry and even Hua Xia's high-tech industry to the world. It can reverse the image and status of Hua Xia as an 'export' party in these fields, and let the world see Hua Xia's internet and high-tech industry in a new light. At the same time, they will be constantly influenced by the super products from Hua Xia. We have achieved this with YY, but just one YY is definitely not enough.
"As the first social game produced by Hua Xia, and even the world, Paradise Town is a little weak in terms of its cultural output. After all, it's a game about growing vegetables and business. What attracts users is the social, interactive, and growth elements of the game. Most of the elements are in line with the aesthetics of PC gamers around the world. Cartoon towns, all sorts of cartoon elements, it conforms to the norm.
"However, Plants vs Zombies Online's cultural output is a lot stronger. Apart from the game itself, it also exports a kind of cartoon culture. In our current world of cartoon characters, there isn't a single Hua Xia cartoon character that has truly made it out to the world. Plants vs Zombies Online, on the other hand, is able to export dozens or even hundreds of different cartoon characters to the world, and every single one of them is instantly recognizable and memorable. This is our success!"
Li Mu had a smile on his face as he said proudly, "What's interesting is that most of the cartoon characters in our game are things that people are familiar with in real life. Some of them are even placed on the dining table and eaten every day. This is extremely beneficial to the promotion of every cartoon character. Look, peas, potatoes, nuts, corn, cherries, peppers, water spinach, sunflowers … these are fruits and vegetables that even a three-year-old can recognize. They're so down-to-earth, much more down-to-earth than Spongebob, Peppa Pig, and Hello Kitty. Under such circumstances, we have to put in more effort to promote the cartoon characters in this game. In the next six months, or even a year, there might not be many people playing this game, but there will still be countless people who will remember every single character in the game, and know that this is a cartoon character from Hua Xia's Hua Xia game. This is the strong output that we're pursuing. It doesn't just represent our success, but the success of the hundreds, thousands, and even tens of thousands of Hua Xia companies behind us!"
These words enlightened everyone in the room.
This was the first time that Li Mu had completely revealed his strategic goals for the next few years to everyone. He had personally crushed these core goals and fed them to everyone in the room. It might seem like Li Mu was just repeating what he said, but those who could truly understand the essence of it would realize that they had a new understanding of the ultimate goal of the internet industry.
Chen Tong, who was well-versed in content, said excitedly, "Li Zong, inspired by what you just said, I suddenly thought of a small idea. I'm not sure if it's reliable or not."
Li Mu smiled faintly, "Mr. Chen, feel free to speak your mind."
Chen Tong nodded and said, "I'm not someone who understands grand strategy and the operation of large capital. I understand what you just said about big profits, but my ability is limited, and I can't think in a different direction. However, I do have an idea about strong output. Let's take our Plants vs Zombies Online for example. Can we add some unique Hua Xia elements into the game?"
Li Mu asked curiously, "What are the unique Hua Xia elements that you're talking about? Do you have any more specific ideas? "
"Yes!" Chen Tong quickly said, "What I'm thinking is that our Hua Xia's unique Chinese architecture is very unique. The richly ornamented Chinese courtyards are different from any other architectural style in the world. Especially when paired with the unique color of Hua Xia's red, it's even more unique. If we add some new maps that use Hua Xia's courtyards as a blueprint for Plants vs Zombies Online, I'm sure it'll be a great help to the output of Hua Xia's architectural culture!"
Li Mu's eyes lit up, "Mr. Chen's idea is very good, very interesting! Old Xu, not only is Mr. Chen's suggestion worth considering, but it's also worth putting into practice. Talk to the art team and immediately come up with a few new Hua Xia maps! "
Old Xu nodded excitedly, "That's a great idea! I'll arrange it immediately! "
Li Mu then asked Chen Tong, "Mr. Chen, do you have any other ideas?"
Chen Tong nodded and said, "There's one more thing. I personally like Hong Kong movies very much, and I also like the classic zombie movies that Lin Zhengying filmed. Actually, I think that zombies aren't just western zombies. Our Chinese zombies are also very unique. Think about it. If we make a cartoon of the typical Chinese zombies in Lin Zhengying's movies, wearing Qing Dynasty official robes and hats, hopping as they walk, and with a yellow talisman on their foreheads, and then put them into our game, wouldn't it be considered a strong export of Chinese culture? Although the Qing Dynasty zombies are scary in movies, if we make them into cartoons, I believe it'll be very cute and interesting! "
"Awesome!" Li Mu slammed the table and stood up excitedly!
"That's awesome! Why didn't I think of that! "
Li Mu really didn't think of altering the classic Plants vs. Zombies from his previous life, because those images were too deep-rooted. However, what Chen Tong said made a lot of sense. Why didn't they use Hua Xia's unique zombie image? That was a very unique horror culture, and horror culture itself was also a kind of export! If they could make the Westerners accept the image of Eastern zombies, then those Hong Kong zombie movies might even gain a certain level of popularity in the West.
That was how culture itself was. It needed to be divided into camps, to form an army, and to combine different types of soldiers together, to be able to attack cities and conquer lands, and to be able to destroy everything.
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