The second half of the previous chapter had a lot of changes. He just had to refresh it.
— — —
"That's very simple. That's because there can only be one MOBA game that dominates the world. It's a 'winner takes all' competition," Pei Qian answered.
"To me, it's not a matter of whether I dare or not. It's a matter of having no other choice. It's not that I dare to burn money, but that I have to burn money. If I can't persevere, all the money I burned before would be wasted.
"The question I want to ask is, what's the upper limit for Dayak Corporation to burn money for IOI?"
Eric sipped his tea and thought for a moment before saying, "I don't have a very accurate answer to this question, and I can't guarantee the accuracy of the answer.
"Our company's senior executives do not have unified opinions on similar issues. No one knows what the outcome will be until the meeting is decided.
"What's more, the company has a department in charge of data analysis to provide the basis for the senior executives' decisions. The data of this department is also very important.
"If I were to judge, this number would fluctuate according to the situation. If a lot of resources are invested but there is no effect, and the market share is growing slowly, it is not entirely impossible to give up.
"If I were to estimate a number … I'd guess 100 million US dollars.
"Our company only spent about 250 million US dollars to acquire Finger Games. That has already brought a certain amount of pressure. We can't keep burning money indefinitely, especially when we can't see a clear future.
"My second question is the same as yours, Boss Pei: what's the upper limit for Tengda Corporation to burn money for GOG?"
Pei Qian smiled. "The upper limit is all the funds that Tengda Corporation can use.
"Third question, 100 million US dollars is obviously not the limit of Dayak Corporation's ability. Then … do you think it's possible for Dayak Corporation to burn more than 100 million US dollars?"
Eric thought for a moment. "In my personal judgment, of course, that possibility exists, but it's not very high.
"Everyone knows that our company has always been a company that focuses on short-term interests and immediate interests. This has nothing to do with the right or wrong concept, it's just our company's habit of thinking. "
Lin Wan nodded subconsciously when she heard this.
The reason why the Dayak Corporation was so notorious in the gaming circle was because they displayed the coldness of their capital to the extreme.
They acquired potential games companies and quickly overdrafted and squeezed out all their potential, destroying many outstanding games companies.
This meant that the Dayak Corporation was indeed a capital group that only cared about immediate interests and not long-term interests. Then, if Finger Games' market share continued to decline and it continued to burn money like a bottomless pit without any results, Dayak Corporation would give up and cut their losses. That was indeed a very likely option.
Eric said, "My last question is: Boss Pei, you said that you would use all your funds to do marketing for GOG. However, the problem is that doing so would definitely put huge pressure on Tengda's capital chain given its current size. Once any uncertainty appears, it could cause huge losses and drag down the entire company."
"Boss Pei, where does your courage come from?"
After a moment of silence, Pei Qian sighed softly. "My luck has always been good.
This seemed to be a very empty answer, but Eric did not feel dissatisfied. Instead, he fell into deep thought.
A moment later, he smiled and raised his glass. "Boss Pei, I think we've both gotten the information we wanted. Let me give you a toast."
Pei Qian raised his wine glass and smiled. "Mr. Ai, I hope we can meet again if we are fated."
…
After the meal, at the entrance of the Vast Heaven and Earth.
Everyone in Tengda watched Eric leave.
Pei Qian could not tell what information Eric would summarize from his words. He was only sure of one thing: their topic had always been focused on 'burning money'.
As long as Eric could affect Dayak Corporation's upper echelons to continue burning money happily after he returned, that would be enough. Nothing else was important.
Lin Wan probed, "Boss Pei, do we need to do anything for Shang Yang Games?"
Pei Qian shook his head. "No need. Everyone has worked hard after shopping for the whole day. Go back and rest. "
Little Sun was already waiting in his car. Pei Qian drank some wine at the dining table. Naturally, he was a little sleepy at noon. Thus, he took the car back to rest after bidding everyone farewell.
After watching Boss Pei leave, Lin Wan, Zhang Yuan, and Min Jingchao gathered together to discuss what had happened at the dining table.
Zhang Yuan looked confused. "What do Boss Pei and Eric mean by these three questions?"
"The three questions they asked don't seem to be very important;"
"When he answered, it was also mixed between truth and falsehood."
"However, both of them were very satisfied with the answers to the questions. This …"
"It's a little like a riddle. I can't figure it out."
Zhang Yuan was really confused.
Min Jingchao nodded in agreement. "That's right. The two of them seemed to have talked about many things, but they didn't seem to have said anything."
"Some information might seem very important, but they should have been able to obtain this information sooner or later given the intelligence gathering abilities of both parties."
"What's more, everyone was actually in a chain of suspicion at the dining table. Even if Eric told us the truth, we would not believe it. Instead, we would think in the opposite direction …"
"In any case, I don't understand at all."
Lin Wan shook his head as well. "I'm not sure either, but I'm guessing that the focus of both parties' questions should be hidden some information. It's just that we can't understand it and can't interpret it."
"Indeed, Eric is not a simple person. Anyone who can make it to the upper echelons of multinational companies is not an ordinary person. "
"We were able to beat him previously because of Boss Pei. Our level is still too low."
"All in all, believe in Boss Pei. I think Dayak Corporation will definitely not let this matter rest."
…
On the plane, Eric pulled down the shades on the windows and closed his eyes to rest.
During the long flight, he had a lot of time to slowly sort out the information he had gathered in his mind and dig out useful information from the three questions.
At the dining table, he and Boss Pei each asked and answered three questions.
Eric knew very well that they were both sly old foxes. It was impossible for them to take each other's words completely seriously.
However, Eric also knew very well that his and Boss Pei's goal was to dig out some useful information from the other party's answers.
"Boss Pei asked me three questions. They were the new person-in-charge of IOI's local server, the upper limit of Dayak Corporation's burning money, and the possibility of breaking through this limit."
"Obviously, he was still curious about his new opponent, but he was not very concerned. He was more concerned about how much money Dayak Corporation would burn. "
"This means … 'burning money' is the crux of this commercial war."
"The three questions I asked were actually related to Tengda's marketing strategy. Boss Pei's answers might be mixed, but as long as we analyze them carefully … "
Eric thought about it seriously.
He had done a lot of research over the past few months. Apart from some details at the execution level, he had a basic understanding of GOG's operation methods.
It was nothing more than burning money without a care for anything else!
At first, Eric thought that Tengda was only willing to spend money on marketing. However, he later realized that making less money was actually burning money in disguise.
GOG's heroes were all free, and the skins were all cheap. The first skin designed by players was directly discounted … such a discount was no different from giving it away for free.
On the other hand, IOI had always been unable to beat GOG. One of the important reasons was the pricing of heroes and skins.
The price war might be low, but it was indeed effective.
Eric knew this, but he could not change it. That was because it was difficult for him to convince Dayak and the upper echelons of Finger Games to change the price of skins to the same price as GOG. The profits involved were too great.
Thus, the question Eric wanted to ask the most was: Why did Tengda dare to burn so much money?
One had to know that Tengda was not listed. There was no such thing as burning investors' and shareholders' money. It was burning the company's money. More accurately, it was Boss Pei's money that was being burned.
That was why Eric was confused. Wouldn't Boss Pei feel the pinch if he burned so much money?
Boss Pei's answers to these three questions could be summed up in one point.
That was because MOBA games were winner-take-all. Thus, they had to keep burning, or all their previous efforts would be wasted …
They would use all the funds that Tengda could use to burn money to promote GOG …
As for the risk of the capital chain breaking, Boss Pei's answer was to 'believe in your own luck'.
That was the mentality of a gambler!
Eric rubbed his temples.
"From the current information, Boss Pei's actual behavior is indeed consistent with what he said. It is not an exaggeration to say that he is a gambler.
"If this information is true, then Boss Pei might have two motives for saying this:
"The first possibility is that he wants to scare Dayak away and tell them that this war is a bottomless pit. If they do not dare to follow to the end, then please give up as soon as possible.
"It's just like playing all your chips on the poker table, creating huge psychological pressure on the other party, betting that the other party would not dare to follow and eat all the chips on the table.
"The second possibility is that as a provocation, Dayak would burn money, including lowering the price of the skin. That way, both sides would fall into a dangerous close combat, but the entire MOBA game group would further expand rapidly.
"Once the cake is bigger, the winner will take it all and obtain greater benefits.
"However, the latter is obviously too risky. It does not seem like a rational behavior.
"What if this is fake news that Boss Pei deliberately released?
"That means that Boss Pei is not a gambler but a bluff. Then, it would still have the effect of 'intimidation'. To put it bluntly, he still wants to scare Dayak Company away.
"Indeed, it's too difficult to guess Boss Pei's mind.
"However, I can also bypass this problem and start from the realistic conditions.
"Boss Pei's answer to these three questions has actually inadvertently verified one of my guesses. That is …
"Tengda might be burning money ruthlessly, but its capital flow is not particularly healthy. In other words, Tengda Corporation is actually dancing on the tip of a knife."
Eric had already analyzed it. He believed that Tengda would most likely maintain a small profit or even a small loss given its investment and returns. In other words, Boss Pei seemed to pay too much attention to the speed of capital turnover, resulting in the company's ability to resist risks not being strong.
Tengda was indeed willing to spend money, but there was a limit to this kind of spending.
Once the speed of spending money exceeded Tengda's profitability, Tengda's capital chain would become very dangerous.
When Eric asked about the capital chain, Boss Pei's answer was "luck".
Eric already had an answer. "In other words, I don't need to worry about what Boss Pei's mentality is. Whether he is a gambler or not, Tengda Corporation's capital chain is actually in a relatively tight state. "
"In other words, there will be a 'limit' for Dayak Corporation to burn money. This limit is the profitability of all of Tengda Corporation's industries and the upper limit of funds that Tengda Corporation can obtain through various means."
"Before this limit is exceeded, it would be useless no matter how much money they burn. GOG's first-mover advantage cannot be shaken. However, once this limit is exceeded, the entire Tengda Corporation might collapse!"
Eric could not help but smile.
When he answered Boss Pei's question previously, he had said a number: 100 million US dollars. He said that this was his estimate of the upper limit of the amount of money that Dayak Corporation could afford to burn.
If burning money did not achieve obvious results, Dayak Corporation would only burn that much money at most.
It was actually difficult to distinguish whether these words were true or false. However, whether Boss Pei believed it or not, this would establish an anchor point in Boss Pei's mind and play a certain role.
What's more, the premise of Eric's hypothesis was that Dayak Corporation was not particularly clear about Tengda Corporation's situation. They would only give in when they burned money to their own psychological bottom line.
However, the problem was what if Eric shared this information with the upper echelons of Dayak Corporation?
Chrétien would adopt a different operating strategy from Eric. He might modify IOI itself and work with local games companies in China to operate it.
However, Eric judged that the effect of Chrétien's actions would not be much better than his.
Eric could take the opportunity to report this information to the upper echelons of Dayak Corporation when Chrétien failed as well. There was a high chance that he would have a chance to make a comeback.
At that time, Dayak Corporation would either give up on the money-burning war with Tengda Corporation or listen to Eric's suggestion and burn until Tengda's limit!
There was no need to say anything if it was the former; however, Eric would have a chance to make a comeback if it was the latter!
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