Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 436: Where You Fall, That's Where You Roll Around
Pei Qian nodded. "Yeah, what's the problem?"
Chang You's expression went through a whole range of emotions: confusion, then bewilderment, then deep contemplation.
After cycling through these reactions a few times, he finally clenched his teeth. "Alright, President Pei, I'll do it your way!"
He turned and was about to leave.
Pei Qian quickly raised a hand. "Wait."
Chang You paused. "Hmm? President Pei, anything else I should keep in mind?"
Pei Qian cleared his throat, thinking about how to phrase things.
He realized something was starting to feel off.
In the past, whenever he proposed a rather outrageous idea, his subordinates would question him repeatedly and ask for detailed clarification before reluctantly carrying it out.
But today, Chang You hadn't asked a single question. He just went through a brief internal struggle and was ready to execute it!
That wouldn't do.
Pei Qian wasn't reassured at all.
If his subordinates didn't question the plan, how could he be sure they had understood it correctly?
A tiny misunderstanding here could lead to huge consequences.
After thinking for a moment, Pei Qian probed, "Tell me, what are you planning to cover in this launch event?"
Chang You replied confidently, "I'll focus on the phone's shortcomings—first, that it's expensive; second, that it's heavy."
"Then I'll tell the audience that the phone is expensive because of the materials used, and list out all the specifications."
"Don't worry, President Pei—I'll keep each point concise, just enough to convey the key information to consumers."
"Then I'll talk about the weight. I'll show the exact weight of the phone and compare it with some common objects, so people can have an intuitive understanding."
"After that, I'll explain that the reason it's heavy is mainly because it has a 5800mAh battery."
Pei Qian felt a bit troubled.
Good thing I asked.
This guy had indeed misunderstood him!
According to Chang You's plan, he would first bring up the shortcomings and then turn them into strengths. For example, he'd joke about the phone being as heavy as half a kilogram, then use that to highlight its advantage—namely, the large battery and long battery life.
In simple terms, this technique was "suppress first, then elevate."
That wouldn't work at all!
If the launch event were handled this way, it definitely wouldn't qualify as a failure!
After a brief moment of thought, Pei Qian said, "You're heading in the right direction, but the details still need refinement."
"Here's my suggestion."
"The flow of the launch event should be the reverse of most smartphone brands."
"Right at the beginning—show the price."
"Don't netizens love to spam 'no thanks'? Let them start spamming right away—no need to wait."
"Use one slide to briefly cover all the phone's advantages. Don't spend more than five minutes on it."
"After that, focus heavily on the shortcomings."
"First, the price—we not only need to emphasize that the phone costs 8,000 yuan, but also that it does not support installment payments, and that the price will never drop in the future!"
"Second, the weight—we need to show not only the bare phone's weight, but also the weight with a screen protector and case. Then compare it with real-world objects, and clearly tell people which types of users would feel strain when holding it with one hand!"
"And once we enter this stage, we must not indirectly highlight any advantages anymore—because we've already covered them earlier!"
"Statements like 'our phone is heavy because it has a 5800mAh battery' must absolutely not appear in this stage!"
"When talking about shortcomings, just talk about shortcomings. No one asked you to praise yourself—less pad, more sincerity."
"Of course, just this alone isn't enough for a launch event."
"Think carefully—are the only drawbacks of this phone just that it's expensive and heavy? There's no such thing as a perfect product. If you can't see its flaws, it only means your perspective is lacking!"
"I want you to find as many shortcomings as possible—and talk about them for a full half hour!"
"In short, just keep the launch event within an hour. Of course, I wouldn't mind if it's even shorter."
"A lot of phone brands make their launch events long and tedious—spending ten minutes talking about some tiny feature. It's a complete waste of the audience's time. We must absolutely avoid that!"
"That's about it. Got it?"
Pei Qian looked at Chang You with a smile.
Chang You's expression once again went through the cycle from confusion, to bewilderment, to contemplation. Then he nodded again. "Got it. I'll make the presentation exactly like this!"
Pei Qian: "…"
He still felt a bit uneasy, but things had already been explained this far. It wasn't like he could personally make the slides himself, right?
So he nodded. "Alright, go prepare it. If you have any questions, come ask me anytime."
…
At 3 PM, He Desheng arrived on time.
He was holding two stacks of proposals. "President Pei, this stack contains the more promising investment projects I selected. This one contains projects that Mr. Ma picked, ones that are more 'dream-driven.' Please take a look."
Pei Qian took both stacks and flipped through them briefly, frowning.
So many words—it gave him a headache just looking at them.
Sigh, people these days… their proposals are too thorough and reliable.
When everything looks this solid, it actually makes things harder for him!
Pei Qian couldn't help but sigh. What a great project Top Student, Come Quickly had been—far more reliable than these proposals. And yet… how did it end up making money…
As he flipped through the documents, he casually asked, "How's the Top Student, Come Quickly project doing lately?"
He Desheng quickly replied, "After Moral Education took over the project, they made some big moves."
"First, they required all their students to register for the app, and even forced them to get their family and friends to sign up. Daily logins were mandatory, which caused a lot of complaints among their students."
"Then they revamped the app, renamed it 'Moral Top Student,' and added features to promote their own courses, like quick enrollment portals."
"As a result, user activity plummeted, and there's a wave of criticism online. The people at Moral Education are probably having a headache right now…"
Pei Qian had been casually flipping through the proposals, but upon hearing this, his eyes suddenly lit up.
Wasn't this exactly the scenario he had been dreaming of?
What he wanted was plummeting activity, revenue failing to cover expenses, and continuous losses!
Pei Qian seemed to realize something—there hadn't been anything fundamentally wrong with his original idea for the project, nor were there major execution issues. The reason it had made money was simply that he hadn't waited for the right timing!
Moral Education really understood the assignment—just after taking over, they managed to turn the project into a loss. It was almost enviable!
Pei Qian immediately pushed all the proposals aside. "I've made up my mind."
He Desheng froze for a moment, then showed admiration and awe.
"President Pei, you found a solid project after just five minutes of browsing? That efficiency is incredible!"
He Desheng gave a thumbs-up, praising the investment genius President Pei.
Pei Qian chuckled. "Take this money and buy back the Top Student, Come Quickly project for me!"
Where you fall, that's where you roll around!
Making money isn't a problem—just spend however much you earned, and it balances out, right?
He Desheng was stunned.
Buy it back?
Currently, Dream Fulfillment Ventures still held a 20% stake in Top Student, Come Quickly as an internal shareholder. If they wanted to acquire more shares, they would have priority.
Moreover, after all of Moral Education's meddling, they had already realized that this project was both money-burning and reputation-damaging, with absolutely no hope of turning things around in the short term. If someone were willing to take it off their hands now, they would definitely cut their losses and sell at a discount.
Even if they didn't sell immediately, in another week or two they certainly wouldn't be able to hold on—they'd sell sooner or later.
But precisely because of that, there was even less reason to buy it!
This project was clearly turning into a complete mess. They had already successfully cashed out at the peak—why go back and wade into muddy waters again?
He Desheng was puzzled and cautiously asked, "President Pei, so… how much are we planning to buy? 34%, 51%, or 67%?"
Pei Qian waved his hand decisively. "As much as possible! Ideally, buy it up to 100%!"
"Oh, and by the way—spend some money to poach the person from Moral Education who's in charge of this project. Bring them over and let them continue managing it."
Pei Qian had figured it out: whether the same thing succeeds or fails depends on the people involved!
If they bought the project back and handed it to He Desheng, it might come back to life again.
They needed to bring over the very person from Moral Education who had driven the project into the ground, let him keep running it, and continue the failure—only then could they ensure everything went according to plan!
He Desheng still looked confused, but since President Pei had already made things so clear, there didn't seem to be any need to ask further.
After thinking it over, he nodded. "Alright, President Pei, I'll make the arrangements right away!"
…
After seeing off Chang You and He Desheng, Pei Qian felt much more at ease.
Just one more person to go, and today's work would be done!
At 4 PM, Lin Wan arrived to discuss the promotional strategy for the game BE QUIET.
"President Pei, have you played the game yet? Do you have any feedback or suggestions?" Lin Wan asked.
"Uh…" Pei Qian really wanted to say he hadn't played it yet, but that felt a bit embarrassing, so he vaguely replied, "There shouldn't be any issues. Let's get straight to the point."
Lin Wan nodded. "Alright, I'll first go over the promotional strategy I have in mind."
Pei Qian listened carefully.
For BE QUIET, Pei Qian had initially only proposed a sufficiently misguided direction: an online horror game with no storyline.
Unexpectedly, Shangyang Games had actually managed to make it!
But just because it was made didn't mean players would buy into it. Pei Qian still believed that a multiplayer horror game without a story would be neither scary nor fun. It shouldn't appeal to either horror game enthusiasts or regular players.
However, he couldn't be careless with the promotion.
Lonely Desert Road had been a terrible game, yet it became popular purely by chance after hitting on the right promotional approach.
Pei Qian definitely didn't want something like that to happen again.
For BE QUIET, he had to strangle its chances right from the promotion stage!
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