Ma Yang had also switched away from his disapproving attitude. His interest had been ignited by Pei Qian again. “Brother Qian, tell us quickly. What should we do?”
“How about creating a food delivery website? We can work with the sellers in Jingzhou City and build an online food delivery platform.”
Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan rained down their ideas. Lin Canrong also supplemented their ideas with more suggestions.
Pei Qian smiled without saying a word.
It was normal for Ma Yang and the others to raise such suggestions.
In 2010, the growth of PC internet became sluggish while mobile internet developed rapidly. In Pei Qian’s memory, the percentage of mobile internet users reached 74.5%. It exceeded the 70.6% PC internet users. That would happen in two years.
In this universe, because the cell phone industry has developed faster than how it was in his memory, the mobile internet era has arrived earlier.
However, to this point in time, online food delivery services had yet to be taken over by large corporations. Those large corporations were still concentrated on another investment opportunity—group buying.
From the spring of 2010, many entrepreneurs saw the popularity of Groupon’s group-buying strategy. The ‘war of a hundred Groupons’ and the ‘war of a thousand Groupons’ soon intensified. Dozens of companies emerged every day in the group-buying industry.
In such an intense situation, food delivery had been neglected. Only two years later would the industry rise to prominence and become the new popular investment opportunity in the eyes of the market players.
Nevertheless, many restaurants had already offered food delivery services as of now. However, most of the delivery arrangements were made through phone calls. It was very primitive and many problems would occur such as late deliveries and delivering wrong orders.
Therefore, ordinary people would have the idea to collate all the resources that the sellers had on one platform to facilitate customers in making food delivery arrangements online. The platform would profit by earning a commission from the orders.
However, Pei Qian obviously did not plan to do that.
“You guys are too rash.
“Just like how we must have our meals one spoon at a time, we should carry out our plan one step at a time. Currently, people do not have similar habits. Our Fish-Catching Internet Cafe is also not an independent F&B brand and has not built its reputation. Even if we have successfully created the website, how are we going to publicize it? How do we ensure that the website will achieve our desired effects?
“Moreover, the biggest problem with such industries is not in the publicity, seizing the cake in the market, or its inspection. Food is very important. If some roadside greasy spoons decided to join us, we have to take responsibility as the connecting platform if these stores were unhygienic and gave the customers food-poisoning.
“Your idea of creating a platform may sound easy, but have you ever thought of the solutions to such problems?”
Pei Qian’s questions made Ma Yang and the rest speechless.
Yes. This idea seemed a little distant and impractical. However… if we did not do that, what could we do instead?
The trio looked at Pei Qian.
Pei Qian smiled and said, “Easy. We’ll take one step at a time.
“Firstly, we have to create an F&B brand name for ourselves. We will produce a simple online food ordering app. However, this app only caters to our restaurants. Our chefs are top-notch, and our ingredients are all fresh and clean. There will definitely not be any problems.
“We will seize the high-end market, build our brand name, and expand our influence from Jingzhou City to the entire country!”
The trio looked at one another. That seems like a more feasible plan!
Just that…
The plan is brilliant, but there is something odd about it.
“So, what will the name of our F&B brand be?” Ma Yang asked.
Pei Qian smiled and replied, “Fish-Catching Take-Out!”
Lin Canrong looked confused. “But, Boss Pei, there are already many take-out restaurants currently. Even lesser-known restaurants offered food delivery services. Although our food tastes good, they are merely home-cooked dishes. It does not have an apparent edge over other restaurants, not to mention the publicity and price…”
Indeed, as a chef, he quickly pointed out the problem with the plan.
Pei Qian smiled gently. “Therefore, I said that we are appealing to the high-end market.
“Other retailers use plastic boxes and plastic bags to package their food. That is very unhygienic and unpleasant-looking. This is also a reason why many people prefer dining in rather than ordering food delivery.
“In reality, the food inside is still unchanged. The only difference will be the packaging. This shows that humans are visual animals. They look at the visuals more than the taste of the food.
“All our food will be packaged in custom-made white porcelain tableware and sent to their doors by assigned food delivery drivers. We will collect the tableware back at scheduled times. We will destroy other restaurants nearby directly with our tableware!”
Pei Qian sounded very confident. He had almost convinced himself with his speech.
Ma Yang was obviously moved by what Pei Qian said. The fire in his eyes rekindled.
Meanwhile, Lin Canrong looked at Zhang Yuan. They saw the confusion in each other’s eyes.
They didn’t understand it. How could that work?
Were Boss Pei’s ideas too avant-garde, or were their ideas too old-fashioned?
Chapter 163 - New Version, New Weapon
Pei Qian did not give the trio time to hesitate. He assigned them their respective tasks immediately.
“So, Chef Lin, you will be in charge of researching this thing and creating a pilot project at this internet cafe.
“As for the menu choices, delivery area, website or mobile application for ordering, initial publicity…
“Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan, you two will be in charge of these. Show me your proposal sometime later. It will be great if you two can provide me with a rough plan by this week, and our delivery services can officially open for business by next week.”
Ma Yang patted his chest and said, “Rest assured, Brother Qian. You can count on me for that!”
There were similar delivery services that existed. After all, the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe was currently also responsible for the meals of all Tengda employees. They had to deliver the food anyway.
However, they now had to perfect some details and hire more delivery men. After settling all of that, they could then cater to the delivery requirements in the vicinity.
Of course, the delivery services by Fish-Catching Take-Out would revolve around the surroundings of the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe before gradually spreading to other areas.
They currently only offered delivery services to a two kilometers radius from the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. As they opened more outlets, they could then naturally accomplish their goal of catering to the entire city.
Strictly speaking, this hodgepodge-style method was not very economical and scientific.
However, non-economical and unscientific were what Pei Qian was aiming for. After all, he counted on the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe to lose money for him!
If the brick-and-mortar store only did one thing, such as opening an internet cafe, restaurant, bar, or offering delivery services. There was still a possibility of earning money given the investment that Pei Qian injected.
After all, the system restricted Pei Qian in many ways. He could not produce sub-quality products. Therefore, no matter how much money he had spent, the services and goods that he provided were all within a floating range. No matter how cheap or expensive his products were, there was always a targeted crowd.
Turning the internet cafe into a hodgepodge could naturally make the various components influence and drag one another down. That would then successfully achie
ve Pei Qian’s goal to lose money.
Pei Qian was very satisfied with the state which the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe was in.
Amongst the various services that the internet cafe offered, Pei Qian was the most satisfied with its F&B sales. He wanted to continue expanding on this aspect naturally.
It would not cost much to hire a few more chefs. However, if he hired more deliverymen, dishwashers who were in charge of cleaning and disinfecting the utensils, and R&D personnel for the website and app, it would be a completely different situation.
In the future—when there were more Fish-Catching Internet Cafes, his losses would be multiplied several times. Where else could he find such a good opportunity?
Pei Qian handed this crucial task over to Old Ma. In doing so, he had high expectations for him.
That gave Old Ma something to do so he would not turn to extreme overeating after Chen Lei left. It would be terrible if he gained weight.
After assigning the tasks for the following minutes, Pei Qian was finally at ease. The sparks that could have ignited over at the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe had been discovered and put out by Boss Pei in time before it turned into an inferno. Perfect!
…
June 10th…
Tengda Network Technology Co., Ltd…
Pei Qian paid some attention to the progress of the new versions for the games. The finalized update time was slightly more than a week away. They had to leave a few days for the checking process. Therefore, as of now, most functions had been completed.
The art resource had not been fully submitted. After all, Ruan Guangjian was in charge of all the concept art for Ghost General. This was something that took time to produce quality work and could not be rushed.
It would be fine as long as all the art resources were completed before the version update on the 18th of June.
After all, art resources were different from the different functions that needed to be programmed. There would not be bugs in it that could affect the gaming experience of players’.
Pei Qian ran through the various new functions in the new versions of the games. He also looked through the new items that would be sold.
Pei Qian knew that the new versions of these few games would definitely earn money. The amount earned was within his expected range. Therefore, he was not as concerned with the new purchasable items.
There was quite a lot of new content in the updates. However, most of the updates were regarding art resources.
The Lonely Desert Road had ten new maps and added a new infinity mode. Pei Qian felt that there was no way this new infinity mode would be profitable. Although a downloadable content priced at one yuan was very reasonable, Pei Qian did not think that there would be many people buying the downloadable content just to play the game again on a new map.
Ghost General had fifty new warriors. They were included in the new downloadable content that was priced at five yuan. In Pei Qian’s opinion, there was a medium-to-high possibility of earning money. However, considering the huge amount of two hundred and fifty thousand yuan spent on creating these fifty warriors, they had to sell one hundred thousand downloadable packages to recover their principal.
Pei Qian estimated that they would most probably be able to recover their principal, but there wasn’t a high possibility of them profiting too much from that.
Game Designer’s downloadable content was priced at five yuan. The game should be floating near the fine line that separated profitable from non-profitable.
The biggest issue was with Ocean Stronghold.
Ocean Stronghold had included new story plots, new settings, new characters, and new weapons. Those updates were all for free. The only chargeable item was a new epic weapon that sold a limited quantity.
Each month, the game would only sell five hundred of the 888- yuan weapons. That meant that Pei Qian could at most earn two hundred thousand yuan each month after tax and deducting the commission for the platform.
The main source of revenue for Ocean Stronghold was the inflating number of users and the adjacent increase in the number of Red Kilins sold. There were about tens of thousands of new players each month. Even if only a small proportion of them bought the Red Kilin, the total profit was still significant.
Taking that into account, the money earned from the new epic weapon was pretty insignificant.
Looking at the ledger for this month, the two hundred thousand yuan revenue was too little to recover the R&D costs. However, the main reason why the system did not point that out as a violation was that the new weapon was a long-term revenue source.
Once the new content has been updated, the company could earn the same amount monthly for the following few months. At the same time, the R&D costs of the new version were only a one-time deduction. Considering the publicity effect the update has on the game as current players’ interest in the game was maintained and past players returned to the game, this was not considered an intentional loss in the long term.
Therefore, while it was almost guaranteed the new epic weapon in Ocean Stronghold would send players injecting money into the game—no matter how much they wanted to spend, they had to snap up the weapon before other players do. Therefore, Tengda could never earn more than the estimated two hundred thousand yuan. Pei Qian was not worried at all.
After the release of the Red Kilin, the new epic weapon that Ocean Stronghold was releasing was the Barrett Doom.
Seeing how extravagant the sniper rifle, Pei Qian could not conceal the smile on his face.
He seemed to be able to sense Lu Mingliang’s grievance just by looking at the gun.
Lu Mingliang had previously reported on how the 500 limited quantity of the new epic weapon in Ocean Stronghold incited protests from the players. He suggested changing the quota to 5000, but his suggestion was rejected by Pei Qian.
It was apparent that Lu Mingliang had spent a lot of effort on this gun and was aiming to use it to earn money for Pei Qian.
As a sniper rifle, Barrett Doom was superior to the Red Kilin in both its design and functionality. However, so what if it was superior?
Pei Qian did not care about that at all. He was bent on selling on 500 rifles. He would admit defeat if he sold more than that number!
There was no way he could profit from the limited weapons sold, wasn’t it?
After checking all the updates for the new version, Pei Qian was very satisfied. He had everything at Tengda under control at the very least.
Over at Shang Yang Games, the reputation of the old games was revived. However, he had reduced most of the profitable content in the games. It was very hard for the games to recover their principal. Pei Qian estimated that there should not be any more problems cropping up before the settlement date this time around.
As long as he was on his guard and paid attention to the profit figures ever so often, there should not be any problems.
Even if Huang Sibo managed to profit from his documentary, Pei Qian had five Fish-Catching Internet Cafes which were steadily losing money. The losses should be more than enough to cover the possible profits.
Moreover, there were also daily expenses and employee benefits. If he had another sudden spending…
Pei Qian felt that he should have no problems with losing one to two hundred thousand yuan this time!
Of course, he could not lower his guard.
Previously, every time Pei Qian thought that he was going to lose money, his employees always managed to surprise him. The stimulation that they gave him was more than his heart could handle.
This time, Pei Qian acted as though he was treading on thin ice. Until the last second of the settlement, he must not let his guard down!
Chapter 164 - I’m Blessed to be an Employee at Tengda
Ma Yiqun was in a good mood recently. He felt that he had finally been accepted by Tengda and had officially become a member of the company. He had studied hard for two entire months to earn this valuable work opportunity. Hence, Ma Yiqun valued th
is opportunity a lot.
Ma Yiqun had worked earnestly on all the story plot and synopsis in the new version of the games. He had also improved on the game narratives that Ma Yang originally wrote casually for Ghost General.
Of course, he did not flaunt his eloquence mindlessly. He wrote the narratives based on the requirements in the game.
For example, Ghost General was a game on the Three Kingdoms. There was a lot of content that he could have written to introduce the warriors.
However, if he wrote it as a biography would, it would not coincide with the characteristics of the game itself.
As Ma Yiqun was working on this, he discovered that although the original warrior descriptions were very simple, the artistic conception of the words was extremely vivid. It matched the concept art perfectly!
As Ma Yiqun was wowed by the words, he did not forget to ask about the master who created this masterpiece.
He later knew that the original writer also had the surname Ma. Ma Yang was one of the founding members who founded the company with Boss Pei, and he had since climbed up the ranks. He was transferred from the games department and had found a wider platform to showcase his talents. Ma Yiqun was a little envious when he heard about that.
Finally, on top of keeping the original eloquence of the narratives, Ma Yiqun edited some words to make the narratives stand out even more.
He had also earnestly edited the narratives in Ocean Stronghold and Game Designer and tried his best to perfect them.
Ma Yiqun did not dare to make a single mistake. After all, other than the chief planner Lu Mingliang, his work might also be vetted by the notable game designer Boss Pei.
If his narratives were not up to standard—even if others could not tell, Boss Pei would definitely be able to see it. He must not try his luck.
He had finally managed to earn Boss Pei’s trust. He did not want to lose it so quickly.
After completing all his work, Ma Yiqun finally exhaled deeply.
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