Rebirth of the Internet Overlord

{Time: October 2005}

{Location:China}

Time began to move very quickly after September, and all affairs of the Emperor Penguin were developing in an orderly manner just like their past development.

By October 15th, the Emperor Penguin [One Number] plan had been publicized and implemented for nearly five months, while Feixun had been online for 10 months.

But no matter what the situation is with Emperor Penguin, for Tencent, which is headquartered in Shenzhen with Emperor Penguin, the company atmosphere in recent months has been somewhat depressing.

This depressing situation is particularly evident in Tencent’s senior management meetings, and today’s Q3 quarterly summary meeting is no exception.

Ma Huateng is sitting at the top of Tencent's conference room. When he recounts Tencent's development over the past period, he always unconsciously thinks of Feixun, a product of Emperor Penguin that suddenly turned to domestic instant messaging.

Whenever he thinks of Feixun, Ma Huateng always feels like a lump in his throat.

Today, 16 months have passed since Tencent went public in 2004. In the year before this period, Tencent embarked on a trajectory of rapid development. However, this rapid development period only lasted 10 months and then suddenly

It starts to slow down.

The source of everything is that Yahoo China, a subsidiary of Emperor Penguin, suddenly released Feixun, an instant messaging software, at the beginning of this year.

Feixun is an instant messaging software similar to Tencent QQ. It has a refreshing interface and rich columns. The most important thing is that the Emperor Penguin behind it has abundant funds, so that Feixun has been diversified from the beginning.

function.

Especially Feixun's two major functions, the Wegame gaming platform and Feixun group, Ma Huateng frowned unconsciously every time he thought of these two Feixun functions.

This is completely an unequal war!

You know, Tencent started planning the game platform in early 2003, and launched the qq game module in August 2003. From the day it was launched, qq game and qq battle platform have become the most sticky products besides qq that can provide users with more stickiness.

Function.

Originally, the QQ game and QQ battle platform had achieved good development in the first half of 2004, and the average online time of QQ users increased by 2.5 hours. However, after wegame was promoted in the second half of last year, the functions of these two sections suddenly disappeared.

Much weaker.

"After entering 2005, Feixun integrated Winger and Haofang's wegame was officially launched, which immediately reduced the user growth rate of qq game by nearly 70%. In the two time periods from August to September, qq game and qq battle

The usage rate of the platform has dropped to daily activity data measured in thousands..."

The person in charge of the QQ game platform had a low voice when reporting user growth in Q3.

In fact, he didn't need to tell Ma Huateng to know the reason, but Ma Huateng could only squint his eyes and listen, but his mind was no longer in the report.

The small games included in the QQ game originally had a higher number of users than the QQ game on the Winger platform acquired by Emperor Penguin. However, the popular games "StarCraft" and "Warcraft" on the QQ battle platform are now available on Haofangda

In the hot era, the QQ battle platform has already been catching up.

After wegame entered China in 2004, for some reason, it suddenly reached a cooperation agreement with Emperor Penguin. Then, the wegame platform integrated both Winger and Haofang.

That's Wegame. It has a direct strategic partnership with Blizzard. Game companies such as Rockstar, Ubisoft, Nintendo, EA, and SNK all have good cooperative relationships with it. They are game platforms that have signed electronic version distribution rights.

After Wegame entered China, they spared no expense in promoting the Wegame platform. After integrating the distribution rights of many games in China, they sold electronic versions of games to Chinese gamers ranging from 9 to 49 yuan.

Popular fighting games such as "StarCraft" and "Warcraft" already have a considerable user base in China. Although most players play pirated versions, after the arrival of Wegame, Chinese players only need a few yuan or even a dozen yuan.

With money, you can buy an electronic version, and then you can enjoy the matching server on the wegame platform that is better than your own game console!

As for the small games originally on the Winger platform, I don’t know what technology Wegame uses. One of their servers can often accommodate 5,000 people online at the same time. Such a huge user base, coupled with the same unsolvable matching mechanism, is even more

It has greatly aggravated the user loss of QQ games.

"...We have conducted a detailed investigation of the Internet cafe market and after traveling around the Pearl River Delta region, we found that almost all Internet cafe terminals with more than 30 people are pre-installed with the Wegame platform and Feixun software. Moreover, the "StarCraft" organized by Emperor Penguin,

Registration for the summer games of "Warcraft" and "CS" can be done through Internet cafes, wegame platforms and Feixun."

After hearing the report from the person in charge of the game department, Ma Huateng felt a bitter taste in his mouth.

This is the strength of Emperor Penguin. Their early layouts cover almost all fields of the Internet. When they want to promote a software similar to Tencent QQ, they can easily promote it with the help of various resources.

Promote something.

Not to mention that Feixun’s homepage advertisements are often displayed on Yahoo China. If we just talk about the 20 million advertising fee paid by Kuainu this year, I am afraid that it has brought a lot of users to Feixun, right?

If this development continues, it will be even harder for Tencent QQ to reach 200 million users this year!

Why is the development of emperor penguins so extensive?

Does their young person in charge already have such a long-term strategic plan at a very young age?

Thinking of this, Ma Huateng could only sigh helplessly in his heart.

After the person in charge of the game sector finished his report, Ma Huateng didn't say anything. He just turned to senior PR manager Tu Yao and asked, "What is the current progress of qq's top-level domain name and qq's domain name purchase?"

Tu Yao has been responsible for Tencent's strategic planning since 2002.

But in response to Ma Huateng's sudden question, Tu Yao could only shake her head.

"The qq domain name is currently registered in California, USA, and the qq domain name is registered in Shenzhen, China. However, the contacts to which these two domain names belong have been unable to be contacted~~ We have no good solution yet."

When Ma Huateng heard this, he could only frown.

For some reason, everyone always felt like they heard a sigh.

…

Lin Dongyang is a freshman who has just entered university. Choosing to study at Fudan has been his goal since he entered high school.

Just over a month after entering college, Lin Dongyang has successfully gotten along with the three roommates in his dormitory. The main reason is because the four people in their dormitory all play Warcraft.

At noon, while waiting in line for dinner with several people in the dormitory, Lin Dongyang suddenly thought of the upcoming WCG finals.

Thinking of this, Lin Dongyang asked the people around him, "Do you think Sky will win the championship in this year's Warcraft Championship?"

"I think there is no problem. After all, Sky's wave is still unrivaled in this year's civil war."

Lin Dongyang smiled and said, "I think so, so when I voted for the WCG championship on Feixun, I voted for Sky."

"Hahahaha, me too, me too."

"Me too."

"Let me just say, how can we become roommates? It's all fate."

Several people laughed, attracting the attention of those in front of the team.

One of them turned around and said, "Hi, guys, are you a fan of Sky?"

Lin Dongyang nodded, "Yes...could it be that you are too?"

"e=(o｀*))) Alas, you Warcraft fans are lucky. We have Sky, the champion of team WE, to support the scene, but we Star Wars fans are the only ones suffering." After a pause, the man sighed again.

He said, “I don’t know if Sun Yifeng from the Taobao team and Luo Xian, the newcomer from the Luban team, can overcome the boxer mountain this year.”

Hearing the man's sigh, Lin Dongyang hurriedly patted him on the shoulder, "Man, the e-sports atmosphere in our country is getting better and better now. Several Internet companies have established e-sports teams one after another, which will only give players more opportunities.

With a better training environment and the existence of the wegame platform, the players' competitive level has been greatly improved."

"Just like Sky from our WE team, if WE team hadn't given him a better training environment last year, he might not have been able to pass the Guabina level." Smiling, Lin Dongyang added, "So, this year,

The WCG finals are worth looking forward to for you StarCraft players."

"Hey, although you are also a freshman, you still have some insights into the current form of Chinese e-sports." The man was curious, "What major are you in?"

"Me?" Lin Dongyang smiled and said, "I specialize in computer software."

"No wonder, you computer students know a lot about the Internet and the Internet." After a pause, the man asked, "Have you paid attention to the recent Emperor Penguin Maker Competition?"

"Of course," Lin Dongyang immediately winked and said, "We are studying for self-study this afternoon, and a few of us are going to stay in the dormitory to watch the finals through Feixin."

…

October 15th is the final day of the Emperor Penguin Maker Competition. It has been confirmed by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture that the director of the Cultural Bureau and the mayor will be present to witness the final.

At the beginning of the competition, Robin Li went to interview the leaders for a while, and now he was sitting in the audience of the Maker Competition with the two people around him.

There were only 20 minutes left before the game. Lou Tiancheng continued to pull away from his opponents with a visible advantage, but Robin Li's heart sank deeper and deeper.

His eyes fell on the player Lou Tiancheng who was using algorithms one after another to beat his opponent's score, but his mind was not on this raging competition.

After a while, Robin Li turned to look at the people around him and asked, "Lou Tiancheng, who was born in 1986, is very good. Hasn't he still not responded to our invitation?"

The two people who came to the competition with Robin Li were Baidu's personnel and technical directors. The person Li Yanhong turned to was the person in charge of technology.

Seeing the wrinkles on his CEO's forehead, the technical executive felt that this was not the time to add trouble.

But he could do this, but the reply he got from this young man with good qualifications was not good.

As for the CEO’s question, you can’t help but answer it!

After a pause, the man could only return, "Mr. Li, Lou Tiancheng has made it clear that the company he will go to in the future is Emperor Penguin... It's just..."

"Just what?" Robin Li frowned again and asked.

"...It's just that Lou Tiancheng said...he didn't think too clearly whether he should go to Emperor Penguin's Luban Technology or Emperor Penguin's Yahoo China."

This superfluous answer made Robin Li extremely uncomfortable. After a pause, he asked again, "What about Dai Wenyuan? There are also two other acm world champions with them, Luffy and Yang Bohai. When you first contacted them, I heard that the communication was still there.

Yes, the Emperor Penguin can't take them all down, right?"

Robin Li smiled calmly, he didn't want the atmosphere to be rigid at this time.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he said these words, the technical executives looked even more embarrassed.

Robin Li's heart skipped a beat when he heard him say, "Two of the three of them have already decided to go to the Emperor Penguins, so this time they are just preparing to show some results with the Emperor Penguins."

Hearing what the technical executive said, Robin Li could only shake his head helplessly, "When Emperor Penguin announced the plan earlier than us, we should have had greater courage and more bonuses to hold such a competition.

This way we can have a broader channel for our talent pool.”

Although he said this, Robin Li was helpless.

Baidu has done an evaluation of the Maker Competition held by Emperor Penguin. The preparation and hosting of the competition in several competition areas, as well as the corresponding personnel expenses, are quite large. The total cost should be nearly 5 million yuan.

Only the emperor penguins dare to take them all.

According to the Emperor Penguin's promotion of next year's event, this fee may soar to more than 1,000,000.

Only the Internet upstart who became the richest man in China with 5.6 billion US dollars can have such a big expenditure. On the contrary, even if Baidu has just been listed on Nasdaq, its development in the past two months has been unbearable.

With a net worth of US$4 billion, the entire company cannot even compare to that person’s worth.

Thinking of this, Robin Li couldn't help but shook his head.

Just as Robin Li moved, the HR executive next to him suddenly said, "But this Emperor Penguin competition is still relatively open. In this competition, we still contacted more than 20 players who were interested in joining.

Ours is from Baidu.”

"Oh?" Robin Li raised his eyebrows, "Emperor penguins are not all round?"

"No," the HR executive shook his head, "the terms of the Emperor Penguin Maker Competition do not include the corresponding terms that those who participate must give priority to Emperor Penguin. Moreover, in addition to us at Baidu, relevant personnel from the four major portals and Tencent also

They all came to the competition field. More or less, they all achieved good results."

Robin Li shook his head helplessly after hearing this, "Tell me, this Mr. Ning is really a strange person. How much pressure he put on us in Tieba and this maker competition that was similar to what we planned. As a result,

In terms of talent, it’s still very open.”

After a pause, Robin Li smiled bitterly again, "It's just that Yahoo China, a subsidiary of Emperor Penguin, is cooperating with Bing, and Tieba products directly compete with us. Thinking about it, it's still very stressful!"

When the two executives around Robin Li heard what he said, they could only worry silently in their hearts.

A few years ago, they had never heard of such a person in China who put so much pressure on Baidu.

***+***

Just when Ma Huateng and Robin Li felt Alexander, Ning Zimo in Shenzhen also felt that Yali Mountain was big.

As a man of two generations, he can do well in the fields of software and the Internet, but he has no experience in the matter at hand.

But just when he felt extremely anxious, the door of the operating room he had been waiting for for a long time finally opened.

Before Ning Zimo had time to take a look, Luffy's family and his parents came over.

As he walked out of the door, he lifted up his mask and smiled, "Don't worry, mother and daughter are safe. You can see the two of them in two minutes."

"I...am going to upgrade to become an uncle?"

The worry on Luffy's face finally turned into a look of joy.

Ning Zimo stood aside, feeling extremely happy inside.

Turning around to look at Cheap Brother-in-law, he found that there were already two lines of tears on his frightened face.

When the door of the operating room opened again, as the pale-faced sister Luna and Shang's infant body were finally pushed out, Han Qinghua could no longer restrain his worry and rushed over. Lu Ning, the elder of the Han family

They also immediately followed him and hugged him.

All their worries turned into joy and tears when they saw the two of them.

Luffy was standing next to Ning Zimo, with no chance to squeeze in.

After taking a look at the lively scene in front of him, Luffy suddenly curled his lips and whispered, "My sister worked so hard, why did she give birth to such an ugly little niece?"

Ning Zi glanced at him silently and shrugged, "We should have been like this when we were children."

Ning Zimo didn't mention the tears in Luffy's eyes, but just turned to look at the infant Xiaodouzi.

Seeing this new life so close at this time, Ning Zimo felt that he suddenly had inexplicable feelings about marriage and family.

But the tension that had just been suppressed in my heart finally dissipated.