It wasn't just Cheng Binghao whose luck was snatched away; Chen Yizhou also had the name "Renrenwang" taken by Chen Pingjiang.
Shenzhen City, Tencent Headquarters.
The current QQ business group was what would later become the PCG business group.
The group's executives gathered today, and the atmosphere was heavy.
Xiao Ma Ge, Chief Technology Officer Zhang Zhidong, Chief Information Officer Xu Chenye, Wu Xiaoguang, the main person in charge of internet value-added services, and others attended the meeting.
The meeting room almost included all of Tencent Group's senior management as well as half of its middle management.
Xiao Ma Ge smiled easily:
"This suddenly emerged Renrenwang has certainly delivered a heavy blow to Chen Yizhou's Xiaoneiwang. I estimate they are currently considering countermeasures. Everyone, please speak freely. Are there any aspects of social games that we can leverage?"
Wu Xiaoguang was in charge of QQ Zone.
This individual later became the CEO of Tencent E-commerce and the Group's Senior Executive Vice President, but he resigned from Tencent in 2015 and became a professional angel investor.
"Last September, with the release of QQ Zone's Information Center and Friend Circle, we already had the foundation to transform into an SNS community. It's just that QQ Zone's previous blog-like characteristics were too strong, making it difficult to directly make the leap. This surge in popularity of social games has shown me the possibility of transformation."
In fact, the first social game in China was launched in April 2008, while QQ Zone's "Friends for Sale" and "Parking Frenzy" wouldn't be launched until 2009.
Chen Pingjiang and Renrenwang's actions abruptly pushed the social game war among Chinese internet companies forward by 1-2 years.
"If we speed up, it can be launched in 3-4 months," Zhang Zhidong pondered.
At this moment, Executive Director Liu Chiping spoke up:
"Is there a possibility of acquiring it? Renrenwang has no fundraising records, and with the huge popularity of the Parking Frenzy game, their internal funds won't last long. The financing window is bound to open."
Liu Chiping's early experiences determined his preference for viewing problems from a VC investment perspective.
After graduating in '98, he successively served as a McKinsey management consultant and the Chief Operating Officer of Goldman Sachs Asia Investment Bank.
After Tencent went public, he was invited by Xiao Ma Ge to serve as Tencent's Chief Strategic Investment Officer, responsible for Tencent's strategy, investment, mergers and acquisitions, and investor relations.
Xiao Ma Ge looked at him curiously:
"Aren't you going to Korea in a few days to discuss the 'Crossfire' project? Do you still have time?"
Liu Chiping waved his hand:
"It's just a side trip. Not many people are watching the Crossfire side. But for Renrenwang, I estimate that many domestic VCs/PEs might have already departed or are preparing their itineraries."
"Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Old Liu should make initial contact, and we also need to develop it ourselves,"
Xiao Ma Ge made the final decision.
QQ Zone was essentially an anomaly.
If you said it was a personal homepage, it was; if you said it was a blog, that was fine too; even an SNS.
It had been continuously revamped to follow the trends of each period, but the deeper purpose was still to retain users and maintain market share.
The success of Facebook across the ocean made QQ somewhat nervous, and it had long planned to transform QQ Zone into an SNS.
Renren's Parking Frenzy's explosive popularity further ignited this fire.
......
Cheng Binghao rubbed his chin, tirelessly browsing every page of Renren's Parking Frenzy, for fear of missing any small detail.
The explosive popularity of Parking Frenzy made Cheng Binghao feel as if he saw some hope. The entrepreneurial fire within him burned even brighter.
Cheng Binghao, who worked at Sina, currently served as Deputy General Manager of Enterprise Services, responsible for developing the search engine "iAsk."
However, he didn't have much confidence in his own product. At this time, the entire Chinese search engine market was firmly dominated by Baidu.
Having reached middle age, Cheng Binghao's heart grew increasingly restless.
In some people's eyes, this guy was indeed amazing.
With only a vocational high school diploma and having studied nuclear chemistry, he surprisingly managed to become Sina's Chief Technology Officer later on.
After less than half a year, he resolutely took 20 "devoted followers" to a dilapidated office building far from Zhongguancun and founded "Kaixinwang," making Kaixinwang leap to become China's No. 1 SNS website for white-collar workers.
His wife walked over, carrying fruit, and asked curiously: "What are you looking at so intently?"
Cheng Binghao's gaze didn't leave the computer monitor, but he said:
"A game."
"Is your company going to make games?"
At this point, Cheng Binghao turned his head to look at his wife and asked seriously:
"If I say I want to resign and start my own company, would you support me?"
His wife was stunned, thinking Cheng Binghao was joking.
"Your current job is so good, so stable. And didn't you just say a couple of days ago that there was internal news that you would soon be promoted?"
Cheng Binghao momentarily didn't know how to explain to his wife.
Indeed, to a normal person, this was a crazy thing no matter what.
"Then I'll think about it again."
Although he said that, Cheng Binghao's resolve to resign and start a business became even stronger.
If it really didn't work out, then he could only secretly resign without his family knowing.
In the original timeline, Cheng Binghao was supposed to resign in February next year, but now the resignation time was eight months earlier.
......
Chen Pingjiang was hiding in his office, with his right index finger pressing on his right eyelid, mumbling:
"Why is it twitching all the time? It's annoying. A twitching left eye brings wealth, a twitching right eye brings disaster. Something bad isn't going to happen, is it?"
Of course, he also knew that such things lacked scientific basis.
The reason was that his workload had been very heavy recently, staying at the company until early morning every day, making him somewhat tired.
"Do you want to go to the hospital to check it out? You look quite uncomfortable,"
Wan Yuqian, with panda eyes, sat opposite him.
"No need, just buy me a bottle of eye drops."
At this moment, Wan Yuqian continued:
"Recently, VCs and PEs have been constantly calling the company. How long are you going to keep hiding? They are all big capital with intimidating-sounding names. Even the front desk is getting a bit neurotic."
Chen Pingjiang smiled:
"What am I hiding from? I simply don't want to meet them. Let the bullets fly for a while. They're all small VCs; the big fish haven't bitten yet."
"Haven't you been complaining every day that you don't have enough money? Given the explosive popularity of our Parking Frenzy, the servers will soon be insufficient, right?"
"It can still last for a month or two, but it's getting close. The unfortunate thing is that distant water cannot quench immediate thirst. It will take a while to collect the advertising fees from the car manufacturers. Otherwise, I might not even need financing."
After speaking, Chen Pingjiang asked Miao Bingwei, who was beside him:
"How is the 'Renren Farm' project progressing?"
Miao Bingwei was taken aback:
"It has just been approved, and it's in the early planning stages. It hasn't been long since you assigned the last task."
Chen Pingjiang tapped his fingers on the table:
"The main thing is that I thought of a problem. The essence of social games is interconnected. You can create countless games by simply reskinning this type of game. I don't want Parking Frenzy to inspire competitors and then have them launch a 'stealing vegetables' game before us."
"But even if we speed up now and finish it in two or three months, we can't launch it. Otherwise, wouldn't it be infighting within our own company? Renren Farm and Renren's Parking Frenzy would be competing against each other, wouldn't they?"
Chen Pingjiang nodded:
"That's not wrong. In any case, let's speed up first. Oh, what did you come to see me about?"
Miao Bingwei gave a wry smile:
"This generation of netizens is too clever. They're frantically registering alt accounts, then they park cars in the main accounts' parking lots. When the time is up, they're all ticketed. Now the game's currency is inflating severely. In just one week, someone already owns a BMW 730."
Chen Pingjiang had already anticipated this situation.
After all, that's how he played in his previous life.
"The price of a BMW 730 is 1 million, right? Update with a minor version. Release those Porsche 911s, Maseratis, and Maybachs later on. Alt accounts definitely cannot be stopped; that would dampen players' enthusiasm for the game."
Miao Bingwei was puzzled:
"But even so, it only addresses the symptoms, not the root cause, right? Luxury cars have higher parking revenue. If early players advance too quickly, it will also weaken the motivation of late-joining players."
"The 'report' and 'maintenance' gameplay we discussed earlier can be released ahead of schedule. After parking for 8 hours, no matter where it's parked, friends can report it, which reduces its revenue, and friends will also profit from it. Better cars require higher insurance and necessary car maintenance fees."
"In addition, launch a Parking Frenzy competition."
Looking at the puzzled glances from the two people opposite him, Chen Pingjiang patiently explained:
"We can hold a Parking Frenzy competition once a week. We'll create a separate competition zone. In it, everyone starts from scratch; it's unrelated to the normal gameplay area. And the competition zone only allows one player per account. After a competition cycle ends, we will reward the first-place winner with the right to use a household car. Other ranks will receive different prizes."
Miao Bingwei's eyes lit up:
"That's a great idea! Linking online and offline, with the addition of prizes, can fully mobilize players' enthusiasm. The buzz and traffic for Parking Frenzy can continue to increase."
"Why is it the right to use and not ownership?"
Wan Yuqian asked.
"Ownership can be bought and sold. The right to use cannot be bought, sold, or mortgaged, and is tax-free."
"Once a week, that could mean the total monthly prizes might exceed a million!"
Chen Pingjiang chuckled:
"Have you ever seen the prizes for the Spring Festival Gala lottery being bought by the organizer themselves? Aren't they all sponsored by manufacturers? Get more media to report on it, emphasize the car's brand, and there are plenty of manufacturers willing to sponsor."
Wan Yuqian was convinced.
Her brain could only handle HR work.
These capitalists' minds worked too fast; she said she couldn't keep up at all.
Parking Frenzy had been online for a week.
Its daily active users exceeded a million and were increasing by 100,000 to 200,000 every day.
It had clearly become a trend.
And this trend was intensifying.
In his previous life, QQ Parking Frenzy alone had three million daily active users.
Including Xiaoneiwang, Kaixinwang, and 51.com's respective Parking Frenzy games, that number could double again.
So, what was a mere million daily active users now?
It was far from its peak.
Time was on Chen Pingjiang and Renrenwang's side.
In the next 2-3 months, before competitors' "Parking Frenzy" launched, the market would be completely captured by Renrenwang alone.
Therefore, even though VCs/PEs were frantically calling to arrange meetings with Chen Pingjiang, he wasn't swayed in the slightest.
(End of Chapter)