Losing Money to Be a Tycoon c1-883

by Inebriation-seeking Blue Shirt, 青衫取醉

  “???”

  “Host, who are you?”

  “Why is there a strong and handsome man seated there? Where did the host go?”

  “Holy sh*t. This is what the host looks like? Are you sure you weren’t a boxer before you started playing esports? My mind is blown!”

  “The host is so good at battling, in every sense of the word!”

  “Quickly, strike a pose!”

  “Is this the live-streamer that chatters incessantly? He looks so different from what I imagined! I thought that the live-streamer would be a scrawny monkey!”

  Huang Wang felt upset reading all the comments.

  Why do you think I used to be a boxer before I started playing esports? You’re even asking me to strike a pose?

  What are you taking me for?

  All of a sudden, a huge flaming arrow shot across the live-stream room.

  Huang Wang’s eyes lit up, and he quickly said, “Thank you for the flaming arrow—’Please stream naked, Host’!”

  He felt awkward.

  Having no choice, Huang Wang said, “I can’t stream naked, but how about this? I’ll wear a singlet…”

  He could ignore all his viewers’ requests, but he had to satisfy those of his sponsors. Huang Wang was a principled man. One of his principles was never to fight against money.

  Zhang Yuan quietly walked past and could not help but smile.

  The players could not take part in professional competitions, and so they spent all their time either training or enduring extra training. Their lives were difficult enough as it is, and so he thought that it was a good thing for them to livestream and entertain themselves once in a while.

  In any case, as long as they could continue training intensely each day and not get distracted by live-streaming, it would all be fine.

  Zhang Yuan returned to his room and checked the mock competition schedule with other clubs.

  After the previous competition, GOG became extremely popular in the country. Various clubs started investing resources into a GOG team. As a result, all of those teams had requested mock competitions with DGE!

  After all, everyone knew that both of DGE’s teams represented the peak of GOG playing in the country and even the whole world. GOG didn’t have international servers yet.

  Mock competitions would be most effective if one played against the best of the best, so that they could see just how far off they were from the top-tier team.

  Still, DGE only had two teams. It would be too much to ask for them to play in mock competitions against more than ten other clubs.

  What’s more, other clubs’ standards were all kinds of awful now. Some gamers from newly-established or newly-modified clubs were so bad that they would probably be defeated in the in-game ‘professional rounds’. DGE’s teams would just be torturing them during the mock competitions that it would be meaningless to take part.

  For the DGE Club’s two teams to improve, they had to keep playing against each other. Yet, they could not turn down all requests for mock competitions from external teams. Otherwise, working behind closed doors might cause them to become too complacent, to the point that they would be oblivious when others overtake them.

  Thus, after a lot of consideration, Zhang Yuan decided to take the lead and come up with a training schedule for all the clubs. Everyone would train together, and they would not have to fight.

  That way, DGE would have time for both of its teams to play against each other and not risk deteriorating by spending too much time messing around with teams that had just formed a while ago.

  After thinking about the various clubs’ skills and timings for two hours or so, Zhang Yuan finally came up with a mock competition training schedule that incorporated all the teams.

  Zhang Yuan sent the training schedule to the people in charge of the other clubs so that they could plan their own training around it.

  Of course, the people in charge of those other clubs did not have any opinions. They could not ask for anything better than for DGE, the strongest and most formidable club, to take the lead and come up with an organized mock competition schedule for all the teams in the country.

  Just as Zhang Yuan closed his laptop, his cell phone rang. He picked it up and saw an unknown number.

  “Hello?”

  A male voice sounded at the other end of the line. “Hello, is this DGE Club? I am the Vice President of Waiwai Live-Streaming Platform, Peng Bin. I want to sign an athlete from your club, Huang Wang. I wonder if we can negotiate his terms.”

  Zhang Yuan was stunned.

  Huang Wang had only started live-streaming a few days ago, but Waiwai had already set their sights on him? Yet, on further thought, it seemed to make sense. All the live-streaming platforms were fighting as hard as they could now.

  Live-streamers of GOG, in particular, were being snatched up with increasingly high sign-on fees.

  Huang Wang was well-skilled and was pushed onto the limelight by Pang Ling. In addition, his appearance and figure were potential hot topics for discussion. Clearly, he was an excellent pick for live-streaming platforms.

  Zhang Yuan pondered for a moment and said, “You have to guarantee one thing. Huang Wang’s original training schedule cannot be affected. He can only livestream for less than 36 hours every month.

  “If you can’t accept that, any amount of sign-on fees you offer would not suffice.”

  At the other end of the line, Peng Bin paused. “We can accept that. However, we have a tiny request. We hope you would allow us to give him the title of ‘DGE Club’s Athlete’.

  “Of course, we will also give your club a token of appreciation.

  “We’re going to pay Huang Wang two million yuan a year, and the agreement can be a tripartite one. The club would take a standard portion as a gift. On top of that, Waiwai Live-Streaming Platform hopes to pay two million yuan a year to become a sponsor of DGE Club.”

  Zhang Yuan thought about it for a moment. “We won’t take any portion of the money meant for Huang Wang. Give it all to him. As for the sponsorship… Boss Peng, do you know that two teams cannot take part in any official competitions?”

  Peng Bin smiled naturally. “I know. We heard that from the H4 Club.

  “However, as long as your club is more well-known than any other, why does it matter whether you can take part in official competitions or not?”

  Chapter 607 - Rent a Street in Times Square!

  Zhang Yuan remained silent for a while, thinking about whether he had a good reason to reject Peng Bin or not.

  Peng Bin’s offer was very sincere.

  It looked like the live-streaming industry was on the rise at the moment. Once various investors saw the investment opportunity, they headed straight for it. Live-stream platforms were now competing at full force to see who could afford to burn the most money.

  Waiwai Live-Streaming Platform was one of the first few live-streaming platforms. Of course, it had much more spending power and could afford to be much more generous in this aspect.

  Two million yuan a year already sounded like such a high price. After all, how many people working in higher management could earn two million yuan a year?

  As for the sky-high figures that top live-streamers were raking in, there were two explanations: on one hand, the prices were pushed higher and higher as more and more investors entered the industry; on the other hand, there was a huge percentage of the price towards showing off.

  Someone like Huang Wang would probably never have thought that he, a young internet addict who had been binging on instant noodles just a year ago, would land such a huge contract.

  Of course, Peng Bin was only willing to offer such a price to one person—Huang Wang. There were three main reasons for this: his individual skills, his gift of the gab, and his image (muscles).

  Peng Bin guessed that Huang Wang would be worth investing in because he was interesting and had a lot of potential. A live-streaming career would suit him.

  Naturally, the
re were practical reasons for sponsoring DGE with two million yuan as well. Peng had already gathered some information about DGE from the H4 club. There were, again, three points that were of interest to him:

  DGE was the top E-Sports Club in the country at the moment…

  DGE was taking the lead and planning mock competitions between all the other clubs…

  DGE was being nurtured at a cost to Tengda, and the club’s manager was once Boss Pei’s trusted right-hand man.

  Would he have to worry about a club like that having insufficient exposure? If they wouldn’t be exposed in the future, why would Tengda be spending so much money nurturing it?

  After the GOG Competition, Peng Bin had reason to believe that Tengda had set up the DGE Club so early to achieve a catfishing effect!

  The DGE Club had intensely toured the various teams before GOG’s competition, thereby greatly improving all the other teams’ standards and pushing them towards regularization.

  Peng Bin would never believe that this was a mere pleasant surprise. Obviously, DGE was an important part of Tengda’s plan to market GOG!

  For all he knew, the DGE Club might cause a large-scale change in the world of esports in the future and become an example for all the other clubs to follow.

  Viewers were inclined to worship the strong. As long as the DGE Club maintained its level of skill, they would always stand a chance to attain glory.

  What’s more, if the two million yuan could put Waiwai in Tengda’s good books, why would they hold back?

  As for Zhang Yuan, he was equally happy to accept the money.

  He hoped that the team members would be able to stand out in the crowd, enjoy more attention, and live a better life as well. Thus, he had decided that the club would not take a cent of the money that Waiwai wanted to pay to Huang Wang.

  At the same time, why would the DGE Club reject others’ offer of money?

  Two million yuan was not much, but it was definitely not little either. Other clubs would kill to get such an opportunity.

  Any club would only earn income from a couple of avenues: investments and advertising sponsorships, competitions, live-streaming platform’s sign-on fees, team uniforms, and peripherals, transfer fees for members, and so on.

  Most clubs don’t make a profit, but that’s only because they couldn’t and not because they didn’t want to.

  DGE could forget about winning money from competitions, uniforms, or peripherals. If it refused to accept investments or advertising as well, it would become a charitable organization that purely spent money, wouldn’t it? That definitely wouldn’t do.

  He would symbolically take the two million yuan for now. To Boss Pei, that sum wouldn’t matter much. Still, Zhang Yuan could send him a message: the DGE Club had the power to earn money, and so Boss Pei did not have to worry about it!

  The more Zhang Yuan thought about it, the more right it felt. At once, he agreed to Peng Bin’s offer, and they set a time to sign the contract.

  …

  …

  August 8th, Monday…

  Pei Qian arrived at Shang Yang Games in the morning. He was very conscientious about GOG’s international servers.

  Of course, he did not care how much of the global market GOG would dominate in the end. Instead, he was more concerned about how the money was being spent. As long as the company hadn’t spent all seventy million yuan, Pei Qian would not be able to sleep well.

  Everyone soon arrived in the conference room. They could all tell that GOG’s international servers meant a lot to Boss Pei. So it felt like a heavy burden on their shoulders.

  Ye Zhizhou began to report updates on GOG’s international servers.

  “Boss Pei, GOG’s English translation is more or less complete now. We’ll be releasing it in the Western countries soon. As for the publicity strategy, we’re mainly looking in three directions: online advertising, live-streaming, and promotional channels.

  “We’ll only be testing the waters with this strategy. After all, we don’t understand the overseas market well enough. So, we have to try things out first. If the effects are good, we can invest more.

  “For the channel promotion, we’re thinking of placing emphasis on those who like playing mobile games, given that GOG’s client and mobile data are linked. After all, IOI doesn’t have a mobile version, and so this would be greatly advantageous to us.”

  Ye Zhizhou finished speaking, but he added in his heart: “That was where we lost out the most back then…”

  When Pei Qian heard this, he remained quiet for a while. Then, he said, “So… how much would you spend in total?”

  Ye Zhizhou cleared his throat and nervously said, “That would cost… fifty million US dollars.”

  Pei Qian frowned. Fifty million US dollars?

  It seemed that they were unlikely to be able to finish spending all that money within this cycle, at that. At the rate that they were going, how long would it take for them to finish spending all seventy million US dollars?

  I wouldn’t be able to incur a loss during this cycle, would I?

  Don’t mess with me!

  Pei Qian gently patted the table twice. “That’s dragging things out too long. Leave a bit of money for our daily operations, and then make plans to spend the rest of it. Make sure it’s all gone within the month!”

  Ye Zhizhou was shocked. “Boss Pei, that doesn’t sound like a good idea, does it?

  “GOG might not suit the foreign players’ taste. We’re not sure if the publicity strategy would even work out well. Even if we want to spend that much at one go, I wouldn’t know how to…”

  You wouldn’t know how to?

  Looking at Ye Zhizhou’s inexperienced manner, Pei Qian knew that he had to give him a hand. It was no surprise. Most employees would not dare to make any decisions on behalf of the boss when it concerned that much money.

  It was time for Pei Qian to step up.

  He pondered for a moment and said, “How about this? Spend the money according to my plan. Does anyone know how much the big screens at Times Square cost?”

  Everyone exchanged confused looks. At last, Lin Wan spoke. “Boss Pei, Shenhua bought it before. The big screens vary greatly in cost. The biggest one has exposure to about three hundred thousand people each day. It would cost 2.5 million… RMB monthly.”

  Pei Qian: “?”

  Just 2.5 million? RMB, at that? That was ridiculously cheap.

  Pei Qian thought for a moment and said, “Then, rent a couple more of them. Can we take an entire street? Just spend two million US dollars on it.

  “In that case, should we rent a few at other squares as well? How about this? Let’s increase the budget to ten million US dollars.

  “Since we’re already renting screens in the sky, we should rent some underground as well, right? There are several subways in every country. Let’s spend another ten million US dollars on advertising spaces in train stations, bus stations, and stop signs.

  “Throw in another five million US dollars for a couple of online advertising spaces as well.

  “Also, how can we just look for a couple of live-streamers to publicize the game for us? Of course, we have to depend on the clubs! Let’s sponsor all the veteran clubs overseas with a sum of a million US dollars. We’ll sponsor ten of them for now!

  “Print GOG’s logo on all those uniforms of the IOI teams as well. Make them switch on their webcams when streaming IOI, so that they can market GOG at the same time!

  “Since we’re sponsoring them, make those clubs set up a GOG team as well. That wouldn’t be too much to ask, would it?

  “Then, leave another five million US dollars to organize a global invitational competition. This time, we’ll invite all the best clubs in the world. On top of the money required to organize the competition, the rest would be distributed as reward prizes!”

  “That leaves us with twenty million US dollars…”

  Pei Qian had to admit that it was an extremely large sum of money. Even Pei Q
ian, who often squanders (System Funds), could not think of where to spend it all.

  He scanned everyone, hoping to get some suggestions as to what to do. Yet, they were all obviously stunned by his bold moves, so that no one dared to speak up.

  Pei Qian thought for a while. It was the perfect opportunity to make good use of everyone’s imaginations.

  “I’ll leave you to think about how to spend the rest of the money as a little test.

  “There’s still an important part of the publicity strategy that has not been completed yet. Have a good think about what it is, and then fill in the gaps in the plan.”

  Ye Zhizhou quickly made notes and nodded. “Alright, Boss Pei. I understand!”

  Although he was not sure about what the little test at the end was meant to be, he knew he could not ask questions about it since it was a test. He had to figure it out on his own.

  Once he took everything down, they all felt relieved.

  They had to admit that the sum of money was too huge. Everyone felt paralyzed with fear that they would incur losses if they spent it wrongly.

  At the end of the day, Boss Pei was the most courageous. He had so easily resolved the problem that everyone had been stumped by! Although the system design seemed messy, it was probably just a problem with the overall plan. They could iron out the details later.

  Now that the plan to spend money was set, Pei Qian felt much more relaxed. He asked, “Does anyone have anything to say?”

  Lin Wan said, “Yes, Boss Pei.

  “Based on what I know, Eric’s first wave of publicity strategies have more or less failed.”

  Pei Qian looked confused. “Who is Eric? What publicity? Why has it failed?”

  Lin Wan looked frustrated. In her heart, she exclaimed that Eric had overestimated his own place in Boss Pei’s eyes. In fact, Boss Pei did not even remember his name…

  “He’s the one whom Dayak Corporation parachuted into Finger Games to act as the person in charge of China. He’s also the one tasked with marketing IOI’s local server to directly compete with us.”