Bu Housheng's experience was very similar to Tencent's Liu Chiping; both had worked on Wall Street, engaging in investment banking operations, and were around forty years old.
Frankly, Bu Housheng was very interested in this job, as returning to China to manage the investment department of a large company was very appealing.
Renren Network currently has too much cash; leaving it in the bank to earn interest is the most foolish approach.
In Chen Pingjiang's view, these funds should be utilized to maximize returns.
Previously, nearly 6.6 billion RMB was raised, and currently, there is still over 200 million in revenue each month.
The money is truly so much that it's endless.
Investing in more companies, establishing a broad business network, connecting with multiple industries, and expanding influence are what should be done.
It's impossible for Renren Network to undertake every project itself; otherwise, the dragon slayer would eventually become the evil dragon.
Therefore, investing or acquiring is a very good approach.
On the flight from Shanghai to Los Angeles, Chen Pingjiang carefully reviewed the Riot Games materials sent by his team.
Riot Games, later famously known as Riot Games, was founded in 2006 and launched its first game, "League of Legends", in 2009.
Tencent invested in Riot in the second half of 2008.
On this trip to the United States, Chen Pingjiang not only had to cooperate with Facebook but, more importantly, complete several investments.
Snatching from Tencent is the top priority!
After all, "League of Legends" is an awesome game.
As a former stubborn Bronze player, Chen Pingjiang also immersed himself in this game for a while.
It has consistently topped the global PC online game revenue rankings for many years, earning tens of billions of dollars.
By any measure, it's an exceptionally profitable venture.
As early as 2016, its monthly active users exceeded 100 million, and global registered players reached 800 million.
In terms of MAU and DAU, "League of Legends" was more than 10 times higher than the highly popular "CS:GO".
Earning money is secondary; the most crucial factor is the influence of "League of Legends".
In terms of player numbers, game streaming, and esports broadcast viewership, "League of Legends" dominates globally.
Taking the S11 World Championship as a simple example, during S11, the peak international audience outside of China approached 4 million.
And during S11, the total number of viewers watching live broadcasts on Kuaishou was nearly 100 million.
These viewership figures surpassed other popular esports events by several times, even dozens of times.
The total global watch time also reached 478 million hours, ranking first worldwide.
After 11 hours of flying, the plane finally landed slowly at Los Angeles International Airport.
Stepping out of the airport, a convoy of several business sedans and SUVs was already waiting.
Li Fu stepped forward directly, got the sedan driver out, and said he would drive.
"Chairman Chen, I'm very curious why you chose this company? I asked around among many industry friends, and hardly anyone had heard of this company called Riot,"
Bu Housheng asked curiously.
"The most crucial thing is that this company, founded in 2006, hasn't produced any notable works to date, and I hear they've recently encountered a significant bottleneck."
Chen Pingjiang chuckled softly,
"Perhaps I myself was once a loyal Dota 1 player. I believe MOBA games will eventually shine brightly; intense confrontations and outwitting other players are very interesting. Moreover, the shortcomings you just mentioned are precisely advantages for us as investors, making it cheap enough."
To some extent, Bu Housheng was not wrong.
Chen Pingjiang's investment methods left him somewhat perplexed; it looked entirely like gambling.
A company with no works and not even operating well might be cheap, but the probability of the funds going to waste is also extremely high.
What are MOBA games?
Currently, what's popular worldwide are either MMORPGs or first-person shooter games.
......
In a small apartment in West Hollywood.
Early Riot Games operated here.
The two founders were Beck and Merrill.
Speaking of these two guys, they're awesome.
The two were classmates, studying majors like finance and investment.
After graduation, they each embarked on their own careers.
Beck was at a large consulting firm, and Merrill was at Bank of America.
Not long after, the two came together to start a business.
This apartment in West Hollywood was no better than a garage.
Even with a dozen employees now, there was still hardly any furniture.
The first MOBA game they made was called "Onslaught".
In Merrill's own words:
"It was terrible. We had metal music. The minions at the time were like little undead soldiers. We iterated many times, and the results were all bad."
When even they themselves thought it wasn't great, it's easy to imagine that bringing the game DEMO to the GDC Conference and meeting with numerous publishers did not go smoothly.
The Riot team wanted to create a multiplayer online game, a game that could continuously grow, change, and evolve.
Moreover, they wanted to make it free, profiting through non-mandatory small in-game transactions.
In 2007, traditional game publishers had generally never heard of such a model and did not believe it was feasible, so they were not interested in what Riot was pursuing.
After returning from the GDC Conference, the two founders began to focus on seeking venture capital because they were out of money.
Unfortunately, no one had high hopes for their work until Chen Pingjiang appeared.
Back then, Tencent only heard about Riot Games during the internal beta of "League of Legends", but Chen Pingjiang brought this timeline forward by more than half a year.
Both Beck and Merrill were typical white men, and they even looked somewhat alike.
The difference was that Beck had a flat top haircut, while Merrill had a crew cut.
"Hey, guys, shouldn't we choose a slightly more upscale place to welcome that mysterious Chinese investor? I always feel like our apartment is so dilapidated that he'll have us over a barrel,"
Beck said, looking hesitantly at Merrill beside him.
Merrill nodded helplessly:
"You're right, but I think he'll still come to our studio for an on-site inspection eventually, so it's better to be straightforward. Now, we can only pin our hopes on Chen; no one in America is optimistic about our game."
"That's not our fault. Those traditional publishers are still playing single-player games, hoping to adopt the same payment model as AAA titles, while we only want to make free games. If I had to sell my soul to those capitalists, I'd rather go back to work,"
Beck said, feeling a bit down when talking about this.
Since starting the business in 2006, a year and a half has passed.
The two saved wherever possible, but the company's annual expenses for over a dozen employees were still not a small figure.
Even after taking out all their savings for salaries, it still wasn't enough, so the two had to borrow money from their families.
But if they still couldn't secure investment, "League of Legends" was highly likely to die prematurely, as they wouldn't even be able to bear the server costs if it launched.
When Chen Pingjiang and his group arrived, they were all a bit stunned by the difficult conditions before them.
The small apartment was packed with about a dozen people, and the smell inside the room was somewhat unbearable.
"Who among you is Beck? Who is Merrill?"
Chen Pingjiang asked.
Beck and Merrill exchanged glances, both seeing the confusion in each other's eyes.
Mainly, Chen Pingjiang was too young, even though his attire clearly suggested he was wealthy.
"Hello, Chen, this is Merrill, and I am Beck,"
the Beck standing on the left introduced.
Merrill spoke very directly:
"I'm very curious how you heard about our studio from thousands of miles away?"
Chen Pingjiang smiled:
"Even though there are two countries, the upper-tier investment circles are interconnected. Your search for investment everywhere isn't news, and I also know no one is optimistic about your project, otherwise, you wouldn't be cooped up working here."
Beck and Merrill gave an awkward smile, having their situation exposed.
Afterwards, the group found a Starbucks for in-depth discussion, mainly because the apartment was crowded, noisy, and cramped.
Under the direct gaze of Beck and Merrill, Chen Pingjiang slowly took off his jacket and, through Bu Housheng's translation, said:
"Let's not beat around the bush. I am personally very interested in your 'League of Legends' and understand your current situation. Perhaps we can discuss a partnership."
Unexpectedly, Beck smiled and said:
"We don't plan to use the traditional game payment model; instead, we intend to make it free. Do you know that?"
Chen Pingjiang nodded:
"Of course, I also think the free-to-play model is suitable for 'League of Legends'. We can sell character skins in the game to generate revenue. Only when enough people play the game will the ultimate benefits be good."
Merrill's eyes suddenly lit up, as if he had seen an angel.
He hadn't expected Chen Pingjiang's philosophy to be surprisingly consistent with theirs.
Chen Pingjiang continued:
"Guys, since we've chosen the free-to-play model, we should focus on the global market and not just North America. Where are the most people in the world right now? China! My Renren Network and DNF in China have hundreds of millions of players. With my help, we can easily open up the Chinese market."
"Furthermore, I have a complete and clear business model that can help 'League of Legends' achieve global success."
Every word from Chen Pingjiang was like an enchanting melody, constantly stirring the already eager hearts of Beck and Merrill.
"Can you tell us?"
Beck asked impatiently.
To his surprise, Chen Pingjiang smiled and slowly shook his head:
"I'm sorry, I cannot disclose more information to you before we become partners. Unless we reach a preliminary intention for cooperation."
"Buddy, you're the one. We don't even need to think about it. Honestly, I liked you the first time I met you. You're different from those old guys in North America; you understand games,"
Merrill chimed in from the side.
"We can sign a preliminary cooperation agreement, and if you can give us a satisfactory answer, we can then discuss the specific financing amount and equity transfer."
Chen Pingjiang gave Bu Housheng a look, who understood and immediately pulled out a standard confidentiality agreement and letter of intent from his briefcase.
After watching them sign their names, Chen Pingjiang said:
"You know that competitive games are spectacular and attract a large audience, which is no different from 'Warcraft'. We can organize esports events worldwide, setting up leagues similar to the NBA.
North America will have one region, China one region, Korea one region, Europe one region, and we can bring the top three teams from each region together to hold a global finals. Guys, 'Warcraft', 'StarCraft', and 'CS' are gradually declining. The future of the esports world will only be 'League of Legends'."
Beck and Merrill exchanged glances, their faces full of surprise.
The vision Chen Pingjiang described to them was entirely achievable.
It's just that they had faced so many difficulties before, even having problems with publishing, so they naturally didn't dare to imagine such grand scenarios.
"Chen, I admit you've somewhat moved me,"
Beck said with some excitement.
Chen Pingjiang raised an eyebrow and continued to elaborate:
"When esports events are held, there will be live audiences, and ticket sales will be the largest source of income. We can personally get involved in forming leagues, producing high-quality esports broadcasts every week, and then selling them to TV stations or other video websites like YouTube to increase revenue."
Undoubtedly, the vision Chen Pingjiang described was very beautiful, leaving the two brothers in front of him utterly bewildered.
Merrill also asked excitedly:
"Such a prospect is exciting, but I also want to ask, if we accept your investment, will you interfere with our operations?"
Chen Pingjiang firmly shook his head:
"NO!"
"My industry in China is very large, and I don't have that much energy to look after you. I can promise you that I will absolutely not interfere with Riot's independent operation. You will still be the number one and two BOSSes in the company.
You don't need to be limited by more investors, and I don't expect to recover investment returns in a short period. A long-term, reliable shareholder whose goals align with yours is far better than a group of investors with different goals, right?"
At this point in the discussion, it was hard for the cooperation not to proceed.
It's estimated that no investor like Chen Pingjiang could be found anywhere else in the world.
Wealthy, hands-off, providing resource support while also offering a clear business model.
This almost perfectly met all the fantasies the two founders of Riot Games studio had for an investor.
"How much money do you plan to give us, and how much equity will you take?"
"'League of Legends' has not been market-tested after all. This investment is because I am particularly optimistic about you. Therefore, I hope to acquire 30% of the shares and invest 6 million US dollars."
"Buddy, 30% is really too much. That would be at least ten million US dollars."
Chen Pingjiang smiled and shook his head:
"Business is business. The risk is significant, and my company also has investors behind it, so I need to be responsible to them. I'll add 1 million, making it a total of 7 million."
"9 million, we'll also take a step back."
"8 million. This is the final offer. If you still refuse, I'll immediately have my assistant buy return tickets."
"Deal!"
Both parties haggled like buying vegetables at a market, starting with high prices and negotiating them down on the spot.
This kind of situation is rarely seen in other similar investment cases.
Primarily, Riot Games studio was particularly in need of this money right now.
If they missed this opportunity with Chen Pingjiang, there would be no one else.
Even if there were, they wouldn't dare to gamble.
Especially since Chen Pingjiang also perfectly met their series of requirements for an investor.
Chen Pingjiang smiled, extended his right hand, and shook hands with Beck and Merrill:
"Happy to cooperate!"
Not long after, both parties signed the contract.
To date, Chen Pingjiang has finally successfully snatched from Tencent, taking the first big slice of the pie.
(End of chapter)