Whether it was a 2.0 or 3.0 model, Li Mu's goal was to first invest in about 50 internet cafes across the country and create the model. Then, he would use the ready-made model to tell stories to the investors.
As long as there was a story to tell, the investors would definitely be willing to invest. As long as the investors' money came in, the subsequent large-scale development would not be a problem. Li Mu could dilute most of the shares to the investors. He did not want to rely on the internet cafes to make money, nor did he want to rely on the purchase of commercial real estate to make money. The money could be earned by the investors. He only wanted to use the internet cafes to promote the development of the internet and the netizens, as well as the development of the Shenzhou and the internet cafes' desktop system.
After Zhao Kang basically understood Li Mu's thoughts, he was more or less worried. He was not as smart as Li Mu. If he was really put in charge of such a large investment project, he was worried that he would not be able to handle it.
Li Mu was not worried at all. He felt that the first thing he needed to do was to find someone he could trust, not someone with great ability.
Zhao Kang could recruit capable people to make up for his lack of personal ability. However, this project must be controlled and supervised by him.
In Li Mu's view, this project itself had nothing to do with the internet. It was an offline heavy asset project that involved a large number of offline purchases and real estate transactions. If there was no trustworthy person to control it, Li Mu would definitely not be at ease.
As for the investment and shares of the internet cafes' chain project, Li Mu's idea was to let Zhao Kang register the company and invest 50 million in the start-up capital first. Then, he and Zhao Kang would jointly invest. The investment ratio would be 9: 1, and the share ratio would be 8.5: 1.5. Li Mu would give an additional 5% of the shares to Zhao Kang as an equity incentive.
Zhao Kang did not have any objections to this. When he came to Yanjing with Li Mu, he had already made up his mind to follow Li Mu to do things. To him, he would only doubt himself, but he would never doubt Li Mu.
After the two of them settled on these details, Li Mu began to organize the time nodes.
The internet cafes were currently developing well, and the national policy was gradually loosening. After the "computers in the city" policy was implemented, presumably the internet cafes would usher in a new spring. This was the background of the industry. With a positive internet personality like him, the attitude of the government and the public towards internet cafes had changed greatly.
However, it was almost September, and there were less than three months left before the first case of SARS appeared. There was still half a year before SARS spread to Yanjing. Half a year later, the panic of SARS would sweep across the country. At that time, the internet cafes would enter a short cold period.
Li Mu calculated that under the situation where there was no capital at the beginning, the progress of the internet cafes would be relatively slow. However, if he allowed Zhao Kang to speed up, he should be able to open dozens of internet cafes before the end of the year. At that time, the model of his own internet cafes chain project would be very clear.
At that time, as long as he found the capital, the capital would definitely be interested. He just had to speed up and get the funding before 2003, at the latest by February 2003. Not only would he not be affected by SARS, but he could also use a large amount of capital to speed up the construction of the shops during the vacuum period of SARS. Once SARS was over, a large number of new shops could be built and opened for business.
If he couldn't get the funding before the outbreak of SARS, the capital might lose confidence in setting up the internet cafes after the outbreak. In that case, the whole plan would be stalled for at least a few months. However, as long as the pace of progress wasn't too slow, he would definitely be able to get the funding before the outbreak of SARS. As long as he got the money, it wouldn't matter even if the capital lost confidence during the SARS period. Anyway, he had already given the money, and there was no possibility of returning it.
After confirming the basic plan, Li Mu introduced Zhao Kang to Wu Haijun of Shenzhou, who was still in Yanjing. He asked Zhao Kang to follow him to Shenzhen after Wu Haijun finished his discussion with the Economic and Trade Committee. His goal was to let Zhao Kang establish a certain relationship with Wu Haijun, and at the same time, understand the general situation of Shenzhou. Once the internet cafes chain project started, it would require Shenzhou's close cooperation. This was a win-win situation for the internet cafes chain, Shenzhou computers, and Taobao. As the promoter, Zhao Kang naturally had a good relationship with him, but he had to be close to Wu Haijun.
…
On Saturday, Kong Lingyu and Lin Ching-ah went their separate ways for Li Mu's online gaming project.
Kong Lingyu was interviewing people in the gaming industry at Makino Technology, and one of them was Xu Bo, who had rushed over from Guangzhou. Lin Ching-ah had invited the core members of the planning and development team of Jinshan Company's West Mountain Residence to have a private dinner. She was trying to recruit all the core members of Jinshan Company's West Mountain Residence according to Li Mu's request.
Xu Bo arrived in Yanjing on Friday night. The HR of Makino Technology booked a four-star hotel for him. Because Xu Bo wanted to take this opportunity to tour around Yanjing, his return time was set for Sunday. After the HR of Makino Technology booked the plane ticket for Sunday, they even deliberately paid for the hotel room until Sunday. This kind of consideration and generosity made Xu Bo deeply aware of the greatness of a big company.
Xu Bo's interview was scheduled for Saturday at ten o 'clock in the morning. He was so excited that he almost didn't sleep that night. It was rare that he could still maintain an extremely excited state of mind after waking up in the morning.
Kong Lingyu paid special attention to Xu Bo because this person was personally picked by Li Mu among so many resumes. Although Xu Bo's resume didn't show any greatness, Kong Lingyu still didn't dare to slight him.
Xu Bo didn't expect that the person who interviewed him would be the general manager of the entire Makino Technology. He originally thought that it would be great if he could meet the boss of Makino Technology's YY Games Division in the second interview. He didn't expect that the interviewer would be the second-in-command, Kong Lingyu.
Kong Lingyu didn't look down on Xu Bo at all. When Xu Bo handed his resume to Kong Lingyu, Kong Lingyu read it carefully again out of politeness.
Xu Bo was a little nervous at this moment. His resume wasn't outstanding enough. In front of such a big shot like the general manager of Makino Technology, he was afraid that his resume would be looked down upon.
For this reason, Xu Bo carefully looked at Kong Lingyu's expression to see if there was any disappointment or disdain, even if it was just a casual frown.
Kong Lingyu looked very calm after reading his resume. After reading the resume, he asked Xu Bo the first question, "What do you think of NetEase's' Journey to the West Online '?"
Xu Bo sorted out his thoughts for a moment and said seriously, "'Journey to the West Online' is creative but not deep enough."
Kong Lingyu asked him, "What do you mean by deep enough?"
Xu Bo said, "I'm not talking about the virtual level of the meaning of the game, but the depth of thinking in the development process of the entire game. I personally think that 'Journey to the West Online', whether it's the first or the second, lacks deep thinking as a whole. Whether it's the architecture, settings, characters, or graphics, they can only be regarded as passable. However, because all aspects barely pass the standard, the overall balance is relatively balanced, so the operation data is not bad."
Kong Lingyu nodded and asked again, "If you were asked to modify 'Journey to the West Online', how would you go about it?"
Xu Bo said, "In my opinion, a lot of the basics of" Journey to the West Online "have already been finalized. It's basically impossible to make drastic changes. If you really want to make changes, you can only break down the individual parts on the original basis and improve and modify them bit by bit. It's a different story. The best way is to quickly develop a new replacement game while 'Journey to the West Online' is still alive. "
Kong Lingyu asked, "If you were asked to develop this replacement game, how would you position it?"
Xu Bo said, "I've actually considered this problem. 'Journey to the West Online' has a lot of problems that can't be solved at all. However, it has a certain user base and brand base. After all, 'Journey to the West' is a masterpiece that everyone in Hua Xia knows. It's also the one with the widest imagination and the most abundant game elements. Therefore, I personally tend to develop a new game based on 'Journey to the West Online' and 'Journey to the West Online'. This game must be built on the foundation of 'Journey to the West Online' and 'Journey to the West Online' to correct all the congenital shortcomings of 'Journey to the West Online'. Then, add a more advanced, reasonable, and more suitable game setting to launch it as a replacement for 'Journey to the West Online'."
Kong Lingyu didn't understand games, so he couldn't help but nod slightly when he heard Xu Bo's logical explanation.
In Xu Bo's words, he mentioned two very important advanced ideas. One was' leveraging 'marketing, and the other was the concept of a popular IP.
The so-called leveraging marketing was actually hitching a ride. 'Journey to the West Online' already had a certain foundation. If they abandoned 'Journey to the West Online' and developed 'The Return of the Condor Heroes' or 'Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils', it was equivalent to starting from scratch. It was far more cost-effective to develop a new game based on 'Journey to the West Online'.
The so-called concept of a popular IP was a well-known intellectual property that could be used for derivative development in multiple fields. Products derived from such intellectual property would naturally have a sufficient fan base. Whether it was publicity or conversion, it would be much easier. The carrier of a popular IP could be a book, a game, a movie, or even a song.
Although this was a concept that only became popular after more than a decade, this model of thinking had already been produced a long time ago. The reason why NetEase developed 'Journey to the West Online', to put it bluntly, was also to use the concepts of 'Journey to the West' and 'Journey to the West', these two super IP concepts, to do marketing. In the next few years, Jin Yong's novels would basically be developed into online games. This itself was also a kind of IP thinking.
Xu Bo also realized the widespread influence of 'Journey to the West' among Hua Xia's billions of people. Coupled with the popularity of the 'Journey to the West' TV series for so many years, 'Journey to the West' had already become Hua Xia's biggest super IP. There was no one else like it. Using this IP to make a game was simply perfect.
The best thing was that if one wanted to use Mr. Jin Yong's novel to develop a game, they would have to seek Mr. Jin's approval and pay. However, 'Journey to the West' was a super IP. Not only was Hua Xia the biggest, but it was also completely free, so anyone could use it.
To put it bluntly, the reason why Zhou Xingchi and other filmmakers continued to shoot movies with the theme of 'Journey to the West' in the most popular era was because of this layer of consideration. Xu Bo could realize the significance of 'Journey to the West' in this era. His vision was indeed extraordinary!
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