Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Half an hour later, Pei Qian arrived at Ming House.

They arranged for a quiet private room in the innermost area since they had already called in advance. The waiter had already brewed a pot of good tea.

Pei Qian sat down in his seat and sized Eric up.

"Brother Eric, you look much more haggard."

"We have an old saying that good health is a prerequisite for work. Work has to be done in a balance of work and rest. You cannot tire yourself out."

What Pei Qian meant was, who would burn money with me if you were exhausted?

Eric looked up at Boss Pei.

Boss Pei's hair might be a little messy but it did not make people feel dejected at all. Instead, it gave people a relaxed feeling.

It was just like he was in front of the two armies. Everyone was dressed in armor and ready for battle. Only one military advisor was gently fanning himself, yawning, and looking like he had just woken up.

Anyone could tell that this strategist was either crazy or really awesome.

Boss Pei was obviously the latter.

Eric sighed. "I'm ashamed of my own mentality, Boss Pei."

He was exhausted and succumbed to the night after he became the person-in-charge of IOI's China region again. Many times, he worked overtime with Zhao Xuming and his subordinates until midnight.

Of course, it was not that Eric was very hardworking. It was mainly because he was under a lot of pressure and could not rest well.

On the other hand, Boss Pei was resting as usual during the weekend. He did not feel any psychological pressure at all, as if nothing had happened.

Their mentality was all too different!

Boss Pei might have been mocking him by persuading him to rest more, but their many fights had all ended in Eric's complete failure after all. Thus, Eric naturally had no desire to refute.

Eric poured tea for both of them. "Boss Pei, I didn't see you yesterday, but I took this opportunity to tour Jingzhou."

"I didn't expect such a huge change since the last time I came."

"Tengda Corporation is not just a games company. It is worthy of respect both within and outside the game industry."

"We might be competitors but I have to admit to this."

Pei Qian sipped his tea, feeling that Eric was hinting at something.

Why did it feel like he was indirectly scolding them?

Why did it sound like Eric had something against his old client, Dayak Corporation?

That was normal.

As an employee of Dayak Corporation, Eric must have interacted with the outside world. Dayak Corporation's reputation in the outside world was already so bad. They had done many things that were not human. These employees probably understood it as well.

The difference was obvious compared to Tengda.

Pei Qian did not care what Eric thought, but the key was… Eric looked a little sad. Something was wrong!

Eric, you have to pull yourself together!

Who am I going to burn money happily with if you are down?

After a moment of silence, Pei Qian said, "Brother Eric, I think you've been under a lot of pressure recently. You need to rest."

Eric shook his head. "There's no need to rest."

"Boss Pei, there's nothing to hide now. There is no official news, but I think I can congratulate you in advance based on my understanding of the company."

"The competition between GOG and IOI for MOBA games that began at the end of 2010 is finally going to be decided after a long year and a half."

"Boss Pei, you won."

Eric spoke very seriously, but Pei Qian was so startled that he almost dropped the teacup in his hand.

Don't say something so scary with a straight face!

Do you know what you're talking about!

Obviously, Eric did not know what the simple words "GOG won" meant to Boss Pei.

If this really happened, Pei Qian would have no more money to burn with IOI!

He could no longer be as extravagant as he was now if he wanted to organize promotional events for GOG in the future.

Once the market share reached a certain level, GOG would continue to expand to other gamers. Its influence would only increase, and its income would only increase.

Then, it would be much more difficult for Pei Qian to incur losses…

Just thinking about it made him despair.

Of course, Pei Qian believed that he would be able to think of a solution if he really reached that step.

However, even if he could think of a way, it would mean that he lacked a brainless way to burn money.

How many brain cells would it take to think of another way to burn money to fill this gap?

This was f*cking bad news!

Pei Qian sipped his tea silently and calmed himself down. Then, he said, "I think that conclusion is a little too early and too absolute."

"That's not all."

"GOG and IOI's occupancy rate might be a little different in the country, but in the other regions overseas, IOI's situation is still… not bad."

Pei Qian had already been very careful to restrain himself so that the various overseas regions would not squeeze IOI's market too much. However, GOG's model was for Tengda to work with local companies after all. It was not entirely up to Tengda to decide.

These local companies wanted to earn money, expand their market share, and increase their influence. Naturally, they would push out various publicity plans without any care and seize IOI's market share.

Therefore, GOG had been constantly eroding IOI's market share ever since they opened the overseas market. It was just that it had not reached the exaggerated levels of the domestic servers.

However, Pei Qian felt that IOI was still profitable. Dayak Corporation would not give up, right?

Eric shook his head slightly.

He felt that it was impossible for Boss Pei to not understand this with his intelligence.

However, the traditional virtue of China was humility. Even if they had already won, they had to say 'it's because you let me win'.

Take Boss Pei for example. Even though victory was already in his hands, he still had to be polite and say 'you still have a chance'.

Eric drank his tea and could not be bothered with these. He said what he wanted to say.

"Boss Pei, I was already very surprised by your previous methods. I didn't expect that these methods during the summer promotion would go up another level."

"At the beginning, your summer promotion did not look particularly ridiculous to lure us to follow."

"If we grit our teeth and follow through, you will immediately release a more favorable proposal to force us to continue following."

"At first, I thought that I had seen through your thoughts and decided not to follow you after discussing with the higher management of the company. However, I did not expect that it was not the end."

"I did not think that the previous communication would have such a deep impact."

"You're using this summer event to plant a nail in the hearts of the upper echelons of the company."

"Tengda might not have burned more money during the summer promotion event, but Tengda had easily launched all sorts of attacks. It left a deep impression on the upper echelons of the corporation. It also made them realize the huge gap between GOG and IOI."

"There is also a huge gap between the determination of my company and Tengda."

"I said before that my company must see clear returns when burning money. It's not impossible to give up if we invest a lot of resources without seeing any effect, slow or even stagnant growth in market share."

"After all, even though the company has a lot of money, there are still many other ways to invest money. There's no need to walk down a path with no value."

"I previously estimated that the company should burn about 100 million US dollars. The amount of money that IOI spent and indirectly gave up in order to promote IOI has already far exceeded this number."

At that point, Pei Qian felt a little dazed.

So much money… had been burnt?

Why didn't I feel anything?

However, on further thought, they had never stopped fighting ever since GOG and IOI started a money-burning war on competitions and activities. It was indeed difficult to accurately calculate the money that they had burnt.

What's more, Pei Qian noticed Eric's choice of words. Dayak Corporation had obviously included the "money indirectly given up".

For example, a skin could have been sold for 50 yuan and sold at a discount of 20 yuan. The sales volume might have increased but the expected income might have decreased.

There were also two types of discounts. One was "thin profits and quick sales". They might be discounts but earned more. The other was "making losses and incurring losses". They earned less but could exchange for reputation, market share, and players' stickiness.

In the money-burning war between GOG and IOI, the latter was obviously the majority.

That was because the party with the lower price would decide how much they would reduce in the money-burning war. Dayak Corporation and Finger Games could only helplessly follow up even if they knew that such a discount would reduce their income.

Originally, IOI's skin price was very high. It was sold for tens or hundreds of yuan. However, GOG had repeatedly reduced it to a cabbage price of only ten yuan at a discount. Their income must have fallen drastically.

If Dayak Corporation counted this portion of the money, the figure would be endless.

Pei Qian had never thought about giving up profits or giving up money. He only thought about what he had actually spent. Thus, he felt that he had not spent much.

However, for Dayak Corporation, what they could have earned but did not earn was naturally a loss.

Eric continued, "The most important thing is that the upper echelons of the company clearly recognize a fact. That is, for a long time in the future, perhaps three years, five years, or even more, it would be almost impossible for IOI to defeat GOG and unify the global MOBA games market."

"As long as Tengda continues to exist, the money-burning war will not stop. Such losses will continue."

"This is intolerable."

"As for burning money to defeat Tengda… The previous attempt has failed. The upper echelons of the company are not determined or confident enough to invest more and bet on something with a slim chance of success."

Pei Qian: "…"

He understood and realized his current dangerous situation.

Dayak Corporation did not want to give up on Finger Games, and there was no reason to.

Finger Games could still make money after all.

However, Dayak Corporation did not want to continue burning money for Finger Games because it was meaningless. How could Dayak Corporation have such patience if there would be no foreseeable results in the future?

A well-known company in the industry had been squeezed dry and dismembered nine months after being bought over by Dayak Corporation. It was already a miracle that Dayak Corporation only had such thoughts after acquiring Finger Games for a year and a half.

Dayak Corporation was not giving up on Finger Games, but taking back the money that they should have received.

In other words, Dayak Corporation would no longer engage in any money-burning activities with Tengda in the future to snatch the market. Instead, they would use the remaining market share to launch various paywalls and squeeze the potential of IOI at all costs to recover the money they had invested as soon as possible.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to squeeze money out of IOI when its market share became too low.

As for whether Finger Games' higher management agreed? That was not important.

Finger Games was a 100% subsidiary of Dayak Corporation. It did not have any say. The higher-ups could only choose to quit if they did not agree.

Pei Qian could not sit still.

Finished!

He was quite optimistic before he came. He felt that Eric might just want to come and catch up with him. Even if he encountered a small setback, he would be able to quickly overcome it. Then, everyone would burn money happily together.

However, after hearing Eric's words, Pei Qian realized the seriousness of the problem.

His best friend could not continue playing with him.