The internet had a long history of bragging. There were two things that people liked to brag about the most. The first was the company's income, and the second was the company's valuation and financing.
If an internet company announced on online media and venture capital platforms that it had raised tens of millions of yuan and was valued at hundreds of millions, then these two amounts would be discounted by 20% or even 100%.
Li Mu's methods were different from these people. He didn't need to fake things in the market to attract attention, and he didn't need to rely on fraud to raise the company's valuation. Therefore, he didn't announce the Series B financing to the public. Even Hui Ka Ming's Mingcheng Capital didn't release any news to the public. People in the industry didn't know that these two companies had privately raised tens of millions of yuan.
For Baidu's Li Zong, it was quite a pity that he didn't have to be associated with Makino Technology. Now, seeing that Makino Technology had made Happy Farm the most popular game in the country, the envy and jealousy in his heart couldn't be described in words. Because of his own misjudgment, Baidu withdrew from Makino Technology in a hurry, and he couldn't even lift his head in front of the capital behind him.
Tan Yaocheng's mentality was slightly better. He wasn't the CEO of Baidu, so he didn't have to bear the huge mistake of Baidu withdrawing from Makino Technology. Seeing that Makino Technology would soon be able to achieve large-scale income through Happy Farm, he comforted Li Zong and said, "Actually, Li Mu is quite independent. If we didn't withdraw from Makino Technology, he might not have directly put Happy Farm under Makino Technology's name. Look at Storm Entertainment, which he had just established, Makino Technology only had 20% of the shares. If he had taken Happy Farm out to set up a new company and used Makino Technology to buy 20% of the shares, he could have legitimately imported Makino Technology's users. But we only had 10% of the shares of Makino Technology at that time. After conversion, we only had 2% of the shares of the new company. It didn't make much sense."
Li Zong nodded. "That's true. Li Mu is smart. He didn't drive us away. It's impossible for him to bring Happy Farm to Makino Technology."
As he spoke, Li Zong asked him curiously, "How many shares does Li Mu have in Alipay?"
"100%." Tan Yaocheng said, "At that time, this company provided payment channels for 3321. No one expected that it would be integrated with Makino Technology now."
Li Zong said, "I really have to give it to this kid. Where did he learn all these tricks? Look at how many shells he's played with now. Makino Technology, Easy Listening Technology, Makino Image, Storm Entertainment, and Alipay. The capital structure of these companies is different, and the fields they cover are also different. Most importantly, they can complement each other in terms of resources. If you can play the company's shell so well at the beginning, what will happen in the future? "
Tan Yaocheng shrugged and smiled. "Anyway, he's better at playing than we are."
Li Zong sighed. "Our business is still too simple. Otherwise, I would also like to have a separate business and put it in a shell company. That way, we can get rid of the constraints of capital."
…
That afternoon, Lin Ching-ah arrived in Seoul, the capital of South Korea (Seoul had not yet been renamed Seoul). She brought the newly established BD department to the headquarters of Wangzen in South Korea and met with the vice president of Wangzen, Jin Youquan, in the conference room of Wangzen.
Jin Youquan attached great importance to this business negotiation with Hua Xia's company because he had seen that the Legend of Mir 2 developed by their competitor, Actoz, had achieved amazing results in Hua Xia. The popularity of the Legend of Mir 2 in Hua Xia had far exceeded the expectations of the development company and the agent operating company. Wangzen was very envious of the popularity of the Legend of Mir 2. They felt that the Miracle MU they developed was much better than the Legend of Mir 2 in terms of world structure, gameplay, and visual effects. If this game was operated by Hua Xia, it would definitely surpass the Legend of Mir 2.
However, the biggest problem was that no company from Hua Xia had expressed interest in Miracle MU.
Shanda Network was focused on operating the Legend of Mir 2, and it was impossible for them to run a second game. NetEase was also busy developing its own game, and the Japanese cartoon online game, Mana Baby, had just started its internal testing. Other than that, there seemed to be no game operating company in China that could be called a famous game in China. It should be known that the game's marketing ability was the most important. If the marketing ability wasn't good enough, a good MMORPG could have twenty to thirty thousand players. However, if the marketing ability was good enough, even a trash MMORPG could have hundreds of thousands or even millions of players. In Jin Youquan's eyes, the Legend of Mir 2 was such a trash MMORPG.
With rough graphics, simple world structure, and simple character types and leveling system, the Legend of Mir 2 was a third-rate outdated game in the eyes of the top game engineers in South Korea. However, Jin Youquan and the other top game engineers couldn't understand why the Legend of Mir 2 was so popular in Hua Xia.
In the end, they gave all the credit to Shanda, thinking that a good operator could play an important role.
Originally, Jin Youquan had also screened out the companies that were suitable to operate Miracle MU among the internet companies in China. Unfortunately, he had screened these companies in private, but he still couldn't find the most suitable company to operate Miracle MU.
Teng Xun had once entered Jin Youquan's vision. In his eyes, Teng Xun had a large user base, and if he converted the user base into a game, it should be very promising. However, Teng Xun had no experience in making games, and it seemed like he was completely cut off from online games. Even if Jin Youquan felt that they were suitable, it was meaningless because Teng Xun wasn't prepared.
Jin Youquan also hoped to work with Baidu, but similar to Teng Xun, Baidu didn't show any intention of making games.
After a few rounds of understanding, Jin Youquan even found that it was difficult to find a suitable operator in Hua Xia to promote Miracle MU.
Mu Ye Technology's Tieba was indeed very popular, but he didn't understand Chinese. He only knew that Tieba was a Chinese community. He didn't even know what kind of community it was, so he didn't know much about it. He didn't even know that Mu Ye Technology had launched a new product — Happy Farm.
This time, Lin Ching-ah came as a representative of Storm Entertainment to discuss the distribution rights of Miracle MU with Wangchan. Jin Youquan knew almost nothing about Storm Entertainment, so he wasn't very interested. After all, it was the first company from Hua Xia that took the initiative to discuss the distribution rights of Miracle MU with Wangchan. If Wangchan's attitude wasn't good, it might have a negative impact on Hua Xia. So, Jin Youquan had to go through the motions.
When Jin Youquan and Lin Ching-ah sat face to face, he was still wondering why this company called "Storm Entertainment" would send such a young woman to negotiate with him. She looked like she was only 23 or 24 years old. Or 25 or 26 years old? Did she understand the Internet? Did she understand games? Did she have enough power to make the final decision at this table?
The 40-year-old Jin Youquan's first impression of Lin Ching-ah was that he looked down on Lin Ching-ah.
Out of business politeness, Jin Youquan didn't show this contempt. After shaking hands with Lin Ching-ah and introducing each other, he asked the first question to Lin Ching-ah, "Hello, Miss Lin. I heard that your company wants to represent our Miracle MU in Hua Xia. Can you give me a brief introduction of your company's basic situation?"
The translator translated the question into Chinese. After listening to it, Lin Ching-ah nodded and said with a smile, "Our company was just established in Yanjing this month. The company's registered capital is two million yuan. Our business scope is the development and operation of software in the field of Internet culture and entertainment, as well as the production and sales of related peripherals."
When Jin Youquan heard that it was a newly established company, he almost wanted to leave. He had always looked down on Internet companies and game companies in Hua Xia. He thought that they were lagging behind Korean companies in terms of technology and thinking. What's more, Wangchan was one of the top game development companies in Korea. Even if it was a well-known company in Hua Xia, he wouldn't look up to it, let alone a newly registered company.
Jin Youquan's expression was somewhat ugly. In that instant, he had completely rejected the idea of Storm Entertainment acting as the agent for "Miracle MU". That little bit of professional smile on his face had also disappeared completely. He looked at Lin Qingya and said, "We would prefer to work with a company with a sufficient user base and a strong enough ability to promote online and offline. Your company has just been established, and I feel that it would be very difficult for you to operate 'Miracle MU'."
Lin Ching-ah smiled indifferently and said, "Mr. Jin, I haven't given you a more detailed introduction of our company's situation. The second largest shareholder of our company is Hua Xia's Makino Technology."
Jin Youquan was stunned and asked, "How many shares does Makino Technology have in your company?"
“20%。”
Jin Youquan's expression looked a little better. Makino Technology had shares in Storm Entertainment, which proved that Storm Entertainment could get the resources it needed from Makino Technology. Although Makino Technology didn't have the genes to run games, it was at least a community with tens of millions of users. It had some foundation, more or less. So he said, "As far as I know, the main product of Makino Technology is a Chinese community. How many of Makino Technology's users can you successfully convert to your game?"
Lin Ching-ah smiled and asked him, "Mr. Jin, how much do you know about Makino Technology?"
Jin Youquan said, "I know that Makino Technology has the world's largest Chinese community. But you and I both know how exaggerated this statement is. We also have a very famous forum in Korea, which claims to be the world's largest Korean forum. However, its users are only a few million netizens in China."
Lin Ching-ah said, "After all, the Chinese community covers more people than Korean. Makino Technology has tens of millions of users in Hua Xia alone. Now it is one of the companies with the most registered and active users in China. There are no more than three companies in Hua Xia that can compete with Makino Technology at this level."
Jin Youquan nodded and asked Lin Ching-ah, "Does your company or Makino Technology have any experience in the operation of games?"
In Jin Youquan's eyes, Storm Entertainment had the background of Makino Technology, which was barely enough for him to look up to. But in his heart, he still couldn't accept handing over the operation of "Miracle MU" to such a company. Therefore, he didn't ask this question for Lin Ching-ah to answer. He just hoped that she could understand the huge gap between his company and the excellent online game "Miracle MU."
At this time, Lin Ching-ah asked him confidently, "Mr. Jin, have you heard of Happy Farm?"
"Happy Farm?" Jin Youquan furrowed his brows. The translator had also used the literal meaning of the four words, causing him to think that Lin Qingya was really asking about a certain farm. Thus, he replied with an uninterested look on his face, "I've lived in Seoul since I was young. My father is a military officer, and my mother is a university professor. From the time I was born until now, I've never come into contact with a farm before, so I'm not very clear about things related to it."
Lin Ching-ah saw that he answered with a sense of superiority, and she couldn't help but say, "Mr. Jin, you misunderstood. The Happy Farm I'm talking about isn't a real farm for farming or breeding. It's a farming online game that Makino Technology just released some time ago."
"A farming game?" Jin Youquan frowned even more. "A rural farm can also be made into an online game? If it's a standalone game that runs on a handheld, I might be able to understand. After all, there is a game like "Rancho Monogatari" in Japan. It's not impossible to develop a farming online game. But how much space does a farming online game have? How many users does this game have? 30,000? 50,000? "
30,000 to 50,000 was already Jin Youquan's optimistic estimate. In the past few years of making games, he had seen many games that didn't exceed 10,000 users from launch to shutdown.
At this time, Lin Ching-ah pursed her lips and smiled reservedly. She said, "Mr. Jin, you've underestimated the user base of this game. Our game now has nearly 40 million users, and more than 15 million daily active users."
"How is that possible!" Jin Youquan was so shocked that he almost jumped up from his chair. He said dumbfoundedly, "40 million users, and 15 million daily active users? Miss Lin, are you kidding me? "
Lin Ching-ah smiled and said, "If I'm kidding, this joke is meaningless. If Mr. Jin takes the time to understand the game" Happy Farm, "I think you'll know whether I'm kidding or not."
Jin Youquan's expression immediately became serious. He looked at Lin Ching-ah and asked seriously, "Miss Lin, how many days are you going to stay in Seoul?"
Lin Ching-ah said, "It depends on the situation, but it shouldn't be more than three to five days."
Jin Youquan immediately said, "Can we call it a day? I'll ask our staff to arrange accommodation for you. I think we need some time to understand the 'Happy Farm' that you mentioned."
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