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Zhou Buqi's game business didn't start with Changyou. In fact, Ziweixing International has already started it and acquired Baokai Game Studio.

However, whether it is Baokai's "Plants vs. Zombies" or the acquired "Angry Birds" and "Minecraft", making these games is essentially incompatible with Zhou Buqi's core business philosophy.

The future is dominated by the platform economy.

If you want to do it, do a "tax-collecting" business.

Only by building a platform, allowing others to consume on this platform, and then taking a commission from it yourself, and making money through "tax collection" can it be stable and sustainable, just like Amazon.

Friends, Weibo, and WeChat are actually platforms. They build a platform to allow users to upload content themselves, and then attract more users through the user's content. In this way, the traffic will increase.

More traffic means more advertisers.

The game is different, this is a direct result.

Therefore, when Zhou Buqi deployed games in China, he transferred both JJ chess and card game hall and "Three Kingdoms" to Changyou's name. It doesn't matter whether you make money or not. The key is to form a business and concept matching.

Ziweixing International has established a game division here, which is very popular. Last year's financial report was very eye-catching, with annual revenue reaching an astonishing US$970 million and net profit reaching US$480 million.

Among them, 90% come from the core Baokai Studio.

It can be said to have achieved unprecedented success!

Last year, in the MSI International Department, the game division had the most revenue and made the most money.

This is due to the strategic design of Boss Zhou.

Prior to this, Baokai had a major competitor in the gaming market, Zynga.

Before Ziweixing acquired Baokai, Baokai had been beaten to the ground by Zynga. Zynga embraced Facebook and became the most popular game studio on Facebook's open platform.

Zhou Buqi did not ask Baokai to follow Zynga's strategy. There was no point in picking up people's wisdom.

He chose a very risky but promising strategy!

Go mobile!

Baokai's classic casual games over the past few years have been redesigned and developed, and all have been launched on iOS and Android versions, fully committed to the mobile Internet!

Then, the market exploded.

Over the past few years, Baokai Studio has accumulated too much and has produced too many classic casual and entertainment games. In addition to the currently popular "Plants vs. Zombies", there are also "Jewel Puzzle", "Swallowing Fish", "Bookworm Adventure", "Ningbo Mahjong", "Texas Hold'em", "Zuma" and so on.

In the past year, Baokai’s games have been downloaded 390 million times on Apple alone.

It has not yet reached the stage of free games for everyone, and the price of genuine games is US$0.99.

Of Baokai’s revenue of US$840 million last year, US$170 million came from the PC, US$180 million came from the Facebook open platform, and the remaining US$500 million came from smartphones.

Even Zhou Buqi had to sigh, the gaming industry is really profitable!

However, in the final analysis, he still does not want to lead Ziweixing to the end in the gaming field. The logic of gaming products is fundamentally different from the logic of Internet products... Now he has a new choice, which is Changyou.

After listing, Changyou's performance in the capital market was very poor.

It doesn't seem to have much to do with whether Lao Zhang dates female celebrities or not, because even though Lao Zhang has broken up and clarified the relationship, Changyou's stock price continues to fall.

The stock price has already broken.

On this day, Zhou Buqi called Lu Qi over, as well as Don Mattrick, the president of the game business group.

Mainly say two things.

Zhou Buqi said: "First, Ziweixing's planning for the game business should still develop towards a platform model."

Lu Qi expressed his support and said with a smile: "The two transactions are proceeding in an orderly manner, and Steam and Justin.tv can basically win."

Steam is a bit similar to the domestic Haofang battle platform.

However, due to differences in national conditions, Steam has more channels in terms of profit methods and is a real game platform. Unlike Haofang, which can only rely on advertising and selling plug-ins to make money.

Just like playing Call of Duty.

Domestic players can download any pirated version and connect to Haofang to play games. Steam cannot connect with pirated games. Users must first pay for genuine games on the Steam platform before they can play them.

There are also some games that may have built-in consumption. If you buy some skins, equipment, points, etc., you will also spend money on the platform.

For all transactions on the platform, the platform will take a 30% commission.

The more games there are, the more players there are, the more active the platform economy is, and the more “taxes” are collected.

Justin.tv is a video website.

Because YouTube is too powerful, small companies cannot compete at all, so they can only focus on differentiation. In the design of Justin.tv, video content is divided into certain categories, including social, technology, sports, entertainment, news, games and other channels.

Other channels are actually not satisfactory.

But the game channel became popular immediately and became the most popular game channel in the United States. Gamers would post some cool game videos and share them with players.

It was this game channel that Zhou Buqi was interested in.

Lu Qi seemed to be holding it in his hands, and said confidently: "The logic of the platforms is similar, just like Netflix, Twitter, and Amazon. In the final analysis, it relies on content to attract users. Steam has been able to develop in the past few years. It relies on the online play of the game "Counter-Strike." However, as times change, this game is no longer as popular as it was in previous years."

Zhou Buqi immediately understood what he meant and said with a smile: "We now have "Dota 2", which should be the most attractive battle game at the moment."

Lu Qi said: "Yes, "Dota 2" is now the most popular game on Steam. Not only Steam, but also other game platforms are also on the top of the list. There are only two ways in front of Steam, either Sell ​​it to us or "Dota 2" will be taken off the shelves."

"Ahem..."

A humble gentleman like Zhou Buqi is really not used to such unambiguous and cold tactics.

However, for the development of the company, this is the only way to do it.

Then, he looked at Don Mattrick and said insinuatingly: "Google is going to acquire Motorola. This deal has been greatly questioned by the industry. The biggest reason is the compatibility of Android system and Motorola's mobile phone business. , there will be suspicion of being both a referee and an athlete."

Lu Qi nodded, "Ziweixing, in the final analysis, still needs to develop a platform economy. Steam is a game platform, and Justin.tv will be transformed into a professional game video website."

Don Mattrick, a smart man like him, immediately understood what the two bosses were talking about and said in surprise: "The company wants to sell the game division?"

"No, no, don't get excited."

Zhou Buqi quickly comforted him.

The game division of Ziweixing has grown from scratch to the scale it is today, and Don Mattrick is the first to do so. He is a game tycoon.

Now that the business unit has developed, the company is thinking of selling this department. This is really a serious blow to his work in the past few years.

Zhou Buqi hesitated for a moment, then slowly said: "Have you followed Changyou?"

"Um?"

Don Mattrick raised his eyebrows, as if he understood what boss Zhou had arranged.

Zhou Buqi said: "After Changyou went public, there was too much pressure on the stock price, and the stock price broke last week. Changyou is my company, but I am only an executive director, not the chairman or the CEO."

"You...you..."

Don Mattrick took a deep breath.

Now I am very sure!

Boss Zhou is trying to save Changyou and lead Changyou out of the quagmire of huge stock price pressure, and the tool is his own game division!

He wants to treat Ziweixing International’s game division as a victim and sell it to Changyou!

Zhou Buqi said frankly: "To be honest, I am already working on it. If nothing else happens, I will reorganize Changyou's board of directors within half a year. I will drive out the current CEO and remove the current chairman. I will Serve as Changyou’s chairman and lead the board of directors!”

The expression on Don Mattrick's face immediately turned from worry to joy.

Lu Qi laughed and said, "Tang, do you understand now? This is a good thing! I want to say congratulations to you in advance!"

Don Mattrick couldn't hide his excitement, "I...I will join Changyou as...as CEO?"

This is too obvious.

Boss Zhou said that he would drive out Changyou's existing chairman and CEO, and then he would serve as chairman. So the question is, who will be the new CEO?

It goes without saying when you look at the friendly attitude of the other party.

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "To be precise, he is a joint CEO. Changyou's business will be divided into two parts. You may not know much about the situation in our country, so I will choose a manager who understands the domestic situation better. CEO. You are in charge of overseas operations.”

"thanks, thanks!"

Don Mattrick's face flushed, and his excitement was palpable.

This doesn't require too much consideration.

In Ziweixing International, Don Mattrick is only the president of the M6 ​​gaming business group, with seven or eight other leaders above his head.

It's different when you join Changyou.

He is the CEO, in charge of all overseas business, and only needs to answer to Boss Zhou.

Not only is this a promotion, it's also an increase in power.

More importantly, it gave him greater scope for his career ambitions.

After all, Ziweixing International is not a game company. Even if it had a game business before, it only made some lightweight casual games, which was too constrained.

It's different after joining Changyou. This is a pure game company. There are fewer constraints, a broader vision, and greater career development prospects.

Zhou Buqi looked at him with a smile, "So, you agree?"

Don Mattrick said: "I can't think of any reason to refuse. For me, this is an important opportunity and I must seize it!"

"Don't you think about it?"

"Need not!"