My 1999

The headquarters of Hongmeng's US subsidiary in Menlo Park.

After acquiring Universal Entertainment and integrating Hongmeng Games’ US business, Hongmeng’s development in the United States suddenly accelerated.

The original office area is not enough either.

In the middle of this year, he bought an office building in Menlo Park covering an area of ​​87 acres and a construction area of ​​54,000 square meters.

"BOSS."

Alan Adham, President of the North American subsidiary, greeted him respectfully.

Since Lu Xiaobo was fired by Xu Liang for cheating, Alan Adham has taken over the position of president of Hongmeng's North American subsidiary because of his outstanding performance at Blizzard.

"Alan, you have been the president of North America Company for almost a year, right?"

"Yes."

"The North American company has developed well during this period, and you are indispensable to it."

Allen said happily: "Thank you for your praise. I will work harder in the future."

Xu Liang nodded slightly, "Is the company's third quarter financial report ready?"

He quickly handed over the prepared documents.

"It's all here."

Xu Liang took it and looked at it carefully.

Hongmeng North America subsidiary is different from others.

Although businesses such as Bing and Kingsoft have English content, they have never made efforts in the English market.

The only thing that is developing vigorously in the US market is Hongmeng’s pan-entertainment business.

It needs to be emphasized.

Although Hongmeng North America has the word "North America" ​​in its name, it is actually responsible for all English-speaking markets around the world.

Similarly, Hongmeng South America is responsible for the entire Spanish-speaking market.

Hongmeng Brazil is responsible for the entire Portuguese-speaking market.

Hongmeng Germany is responsible for the German-speaking market.

Hongmeng French Company is responsible for the entire French market.

Hongmeng Middle East Company is responsible for the global Arabic market.

Therefore, Hongmeng’s business in North America is not small.

In particular, Hongmeng Music Network (imusic) has integrated online websites under Universal Music.

Hongmeng Music Network has 37 million registered users in the global English market, and 280 million registered users worldwide.

It is the well-deserved No. 1 online music network.

That’s twice as much as Apple’s iTunes.

However, dragged down by the Chinese market and some markets in developing countries, 45% of users did not generate much value.

Even so, Hongmeng North America’s online music revenue in the third quarter still exceeded US$290 million.

Net profit exceeded US$46 million.

An increase of 45% compared with the same period last year.

Universal Music Network’s online business is a well-deserved tonic.

After the integration was completed, Apple iTunes was completely suppressed.

"After cooperating with Facebook and Twitter, has the user registration situation of imusic changed?" Xu Liang asked.

"The changes have been huge. The user registration rate has increased by 11% year-on-year, and the growth rate has become higher as time goes by."

Allen said excitedly.

Xu Liang nodded slightly.

The faster Facebook and Twitter develop, the better they will be at attracting traffic to imusic.

Just like QQ and QQ Music.

Both sides complement each other.

Hongmeng’s North American gaming business has merged with Universal Games and integrated Hongmeng Games.

There are currently four major studios.

Xuanming Studio mainly develops games under the original "Xueleshan" brand.

"Half-Life", "Counter-Strike", "King's Quest 9", "Caesar III" and "The Witcher 4".

Houtu Studio is based on Northern Blizzard and has made certain expansions.

Currently developing "Diablo 3", "Hell's Gate", "Homeworld 2" and "Universe Legends".

Qiangliang Studio inherited Blizzard's legacy and developed "Warcraft", "StarCraft", "Lost Vikings 3" and "Rock and Roll Racing".

Shebishi Studio has inherited Universal's game business and currently has two game development groups.

The first group developed Crash Bandicoot.

The second group develops "Sparrow the Dragon".

Most games have predecessors, so as long as you don't mess around, you can generally make a profit.

In the third quarter of 2004, Hongmeng Games North America generated revenue of US$860 million, the highest among all Hongmeng subsidiaries.

Net profit was as high as US$210 million.

"When will "World of Warcraft" be launched?"

"We are currently in the final round of public testing. If there are no problems, it will be officially released globally on November 23 this year."

Xu Liang nodded slightly.

"I only care about quality, don't ruin the company's brand."

"You can rest assured that "World of Warcraft" is definitely the best online game in the world."

Allen looked confident.

As the former president of Hongmeng Games North America and the president of Blizzard, he directed the research and development of World of Warcraft. No one knows the quality of his games better than him.

"As long as you have confidence, I'll wait to see your results."

"You won't be disappointed."

Compared with games and music, Hongmeng North American Literature Network is much worse.

As Hongmeng's first website to enter the English market, ibook has 33 million registered users, making it the largest online literature website in the English market.

In addition to attracting local writers from the English-speaking market, there is also a professional translation team to translate Hongmeng Literature Huaxia's books.

"Legend of Xiaobing", "Zhu Xian", "Tan of Demons and Gods" and other popular novels of Hongmeng Literature Huaxia Company basically have professional English versions.

In the third quarter of 2004, Hongmeng North American Literature Network generated a total revenue of US$67 million from online subscriptions and offline physical books, with a net profit of US$18.3 million.

Hongmeng Comics website and Hongmeng Literature entered the Five Eyes Alliance a year late.

Although it is not comparable to the two giants Marvel and DC, with its low registration threshold, it has more than 5,000 works in three years.

Except for some of them, they are adaptations of excellent comics from China, Japan, and South Korea.

Local comics account for more than half.

It needs to be emphasized that the high-quality novels of Hongmeng Literature provide a large amount of material for Hongmeng Comics.

The linkage between the two has greatly increased each other's market share.

After spending more than three years of hard work, Hongmeng Comics North America has 17 million registered users and is the largest online comic website within the Five Eyes Alliance.

In the third quarter of 2004, Hongmeng Comics North America's online subscriptions, offline physical books, and peripheral product development generated a total revenue of US$89 million and a net profit of US$21.3 million.

Yes, comics companies make more money.

Because comics have peripherals.

The appeal of pictures is always more popular than mere words.

Hongmeng North America Animation Company was originally the animation department of Universal Entertainment.

I have never developed any big production.

So after Hongmeng acquired Universal, it took over the animation department.

"Is the animation of "Little Soldier Legend" completed?"

"The first season has been produced and we are contacting TV stations to broadcast it. If the ratings are good, we will start the production of the second season."

Xu Liang nodded. "Legend of the Little Soldier" is a rare science fiction theme that can be accepted by both China and North America.

Of course some details still need to be changed.

"Are there any plans for a second part?"

"We are preparing to produce two novels. One is a novel "Chris Witch" by a British writer. It currently has 21.4 million subscriptions on Hongmeng North American Literature Network and is very popular.

The other one is "Twilight" written by American female writer Stephenie Meyer. It has more than 40 million subscriptions since its release in 2003. Many producers and 20th Century Fox want to buy the rights.

But I refused. "

"twilight?"

Xu Liang always felt that it sounded familiar.

"Have you read the content?"

"I've seen some of it, but I haven't finished it."

"Just tell me."

Allen was a little curious as to why the big boss was interested in this?

But he still said quickly.

"The work tells the romantic love story between two middle school students, Bella and Edward.

But what is different from ordinary youth novels is that this is a strange love affair between a person and a vampire.

The work uses a vaguely Gothic style as the background, telling a poignant love story, mixed with supernatural elements, and an ups and downs of the plot... "

The more Xu Liang listened, the more familiar it became, and a light suddenly flashed in his mind.

"Isn't this Twilight?!"

In his previous life, he was dragged to the cinema by his girlfriend to watch this series of movies.

My girlfriend was so moved after reading it, was he...?

There is a cross talk that describes it very well.

Today he loves her, tomorrow he loves him, the day after tomorrow he doesn't love her but he loves her, and he falls in love with her again.

He is with her, he is with him, he is not with her, he is not with him, he is with her, he is with him again, he and her former him, the child they gave birth to looks like him...

It was so cruel that he wanted to vomit.

After interrupting Allen who was still talking.

"It seems that you like this novel very much. Do you remember it clearly?"

Allen smiled bitterly and said: "The main reason is that my daughter likes it. In order to communicate with her, I watched it many times, so I remember it clearly."

"I remember your daughter just entered eighth grade, right?"

"Yes. Now is the time to rebel. If Marina hadn't been reluctant to let go, I would have really wanted to send her to a missionary school."

"Haha, little kid, this is the time to be rebellious, just get over it."

Allen nodded and suddenly asked curiously: "BOSS, are you in a rebellious stage?"

"No."

"Nothing is impossible."

"Nothing is impossible. China is different from the United States. Here you don't have to take the high school entrance exam. But China is different. You must pass strict exams after ninth grade.

If you fail the exam, you will need to pay the equivalent of $50,000 in tuition to enter high school.

If you can't get the money, you have to give up.

Almost 90% of my classmates did not enter high school. "

When he was in junior high school, there were seven classes in the junior high school, with about sixty students in each class. By the end of the semester in the third grade of junior high school, more than 400 students were divided into three groups.

The top ten in each class are gathered together to form a key class.

Then, 11 to 25 repeat students and art students from seven classes were gathered together to form two ordinary classes.

These three classes all focus on high school entrance exams.

The rest were all given up.

Because apart from taking money, it is impossible for these people to enter high school.

Except for a small number who entered technical schools and a very small number who joined the army, the rest left to fend for themselves.

The key class was okay, but most of the two ordinary classes couldn't pass the high school entrance examination.

Although he didn't know the specific data, there was a high probability that the number of people who paid extra money to pass the exam would not exceed fifty, or even less.

Why so sure?

Around 2000, junior high school entrance examinations and high school entrance examinations were basically based on separate admissions.

Unless you can get into the top 100 in the city, or have good connections, you can only go to the nearest high school.

When he was in high school, there were seven classes of sixty students in the first year of high school. Among his classmates, there was only one classmate from the same junior high school.

It can be said that the transition from junior high school to high school is more cruel than college!

It was not until 10 years later, when the number of students became increasingly scarce, that the situation improved.

Even high schools that were not recruiting enough students were merged, including his alma mater in a rural town.