Text | Hua Shang Tao Strategy Mother Ze Liang
Recently, former South Korean President Moon Jae-in wrote: Expressing his deepest condolences to Kim Jong-joo, who laid the foundation for the Korean game boom.
Let the president give a eulogy, what is the origin of Kim Jong-joo?
He was once the third richest man in South Korea, and he founded Nexon, the country's top game company. Its impact on the Korean game industry is no less than that of Jack Ma on Chinese e-commerce.
However, such a game giant "does not understand the game", but with the "two axes" (plagiarism and acquisition), won "Adventure Island", "Running Kart", "DNF" and other divine works, so that 350 million players in 72 countries are crazy. At its peak, Chinese and Korean players contributed more than 80% of Nexon's revenue.
This article attempts to answer two questions:
1, a person who does not understand the game at all, how to rely on the game to become the third richest man in South Korea, the big chaebol?
2. How did the Korean game industry, represented by Nexon, lose the Chinese market and get into trouble?
【01】
In the 1990s, Japan's Nintendo and Sony rose rapidly through games and accumulated huge wealth. At this time, South Korea is still a "game desert", and can only watch its neighbors grab gold.
In order to change the status quo, the South Korean government put forward the slogan of "cultural nation-building" in 1988 and vigorously supported cultural industries such as games.
Everything is in place, and only one hero is missing. In 1994, Kim Jong-joo, a graduate student at Seoul National University, became a young man chosen by history.
South Korea can't even get a decent game, and Kim Jong-joo is heartbroken while playing Japanese games. He found Song Jae-kyung, who had the same idea, and founded the game company Nexon.
In that era when Nintendo and Sony immortals were fighting, and fighting against them was a mantis arm as a car. Therefore, Kim Jong-joo chose the curve to save the country: the console game can not be played, then do online games.
His partner Song Zaijing is a genius in making online games. At the beginning of the establishment of the company, Song tried several small games in Beijing, and the market response was excellent.
In 1996, Song came to Beijing to put the big - low-key debut of the "Kingdom of the Wind", directly exploded the Korean game industry, and soon after the listing created a myth of 1 million registered users.
However, soon after becoming famous in World War I, Song zaijing was poached by the newly formed NCsoft. He developed Paradise for NCsoft, and at one point registered as many as one-third of South Korea's population.
Lack of its own innovation and research and development capabilities, Nexon's confrontation with NCsoft is not suspenseful. In 2001, Nexon competed with several self-developed online games launched by "Paradise", all of which ended in fiasco.
The operation deteriorated rapidly, and there was a rumor that Kim Jong-joo wanted to "run away".
Just when the industry thought that Nexon could not stand up, Kim Jong-joo took out his "two axes" - plagiarism, mergers and acquisitions.
【02】
Forced to a dead end, Kim Jong-joo ordered its Lodumani Studio to "do whatever it takes" to find a game that can compete with "Paradise", and if he can't do it himself, he will copy it, and if the role-playing class can't be beaten, he will change the subdivision category to fight.
At the behest of this, Lodumani Studios imitated the classic game "Stickman" and developed Bubble Hall. Unexpectedly, in one fell swoop, it opened up a new blue ocean in leisure and entertainment online games.
In 2001, in South Korea, it was inferior to "Legend of Paradise", and after entering China, it quickly occupied the market and obtained the agency rights of "Legend", and also climbed to the first place in China's game industry with this game, and the boss Chen Tianqiao won the richest man in China.
Jin Zhengzhou smelled business opportunities and also set his sights on the huge Chinese market. He found Shanda and handed over the agency rights of "Bubble Hall" to the other party.
Backed by Shanda, "Bubble Hall" opened up the Chinese market in one fell swoop, and was even more popular than in South Korea. In that era of scarcity of personal computers, the number of people online at one time was as high as 800,000. Jin Zhengzhou took advantage of the situation to launch the "game free, props charged" model, and earned a pot full of pots.
With the big victory of "Bubble Hall", Kim Jong-joo then set his sights on Nintendo's Mario Kart. Nexon combined the "Bubble Hall" character design and the gameplay of "Mario Kart" to launch the "Running Kart", and repeated the same trick, handed over the agency to century Tiancheng, and once again exploded in the Chinese and Korean markets.
Relying on "copying and copying", Nexon's business situation gradually improved, and Kim Jong-joo took advantage of the victory to chase and reveal his second axe - buy buy buy.
In 2003, Kim Jong-joo offered to acquire the 2D game Adventure Island, which had a good momentum in South Korea, but the producer Sizet asked for a very high price, almost equal to Nexon's entire cash flow.
Against the backdrop of the rise of 3D games, it doesn't seem wise to bet on a 2D side-scrolling game.
Even so, Kim Jong-joo made a desperate bet and chose "All In".
If the market doesn't buy it, what awaits Nexon is bankruptcy. Fortunately, "Adventure Island" did not disappoint Kim Jong-joo, and it became popular in South Korea shortly after its launch. In China, "Adventure Island" has gained hundreds of millions of users in several years, bringing hundreds of billions of won to Nexon.
Kim Jong-joo's appetite is getting bigger and bigger, and he even does not hesitate to stage the drama of "tiger eating", and this "tiger" is the Chinese company - Tencent.
In 2008, South Korean game production company Neople developed Dungeons and Dragons (DNF for short), Tencent saw that the game was good, and planned to try it first.
It doesn't matter if you try it, Tencent, which represents DNF, rose from the sixth largest game company in China to the second, just one step away from the first grand.
Just when Tencent was about to buy Neoplus, Kim Jong-joo, who was halfway out, took the lead and quickly reached a consensus with Neople to buy Neoplus for 2 billion yuan.
Since then, Tencent has had to buy the agency rights of DNF from Nexon. The Chinese market contributes 94% of DNF's revenue, and Tencent pays Nexon about $900 million a year in agency fees, equivalent to one-third of its annual revenue.
The year after the acquisition was completed, at a game industry forum, someone asked Martin Lau, then president of Tencent, "What would you want to do most if you travel back a year ago?" ”
Martin Lau replied without hesitation: "Rush to Korea at any cost and buy Neoples!" ”
Since 2012, self-made Kim Jong-joo has been ranked in the top 3 of South Korea's richest people, on an equal footing with chaebol giants such as Samsung.
Kim Jong-joo's success has influenced a large number of Korean game companies. "Dragon Clan", "Sword Spirit", "Audition" and so on have poured into China one after another, making a lot of money in the huge Chinese market.
【03】
However, Nexon, who is addicted to the "two axes", has also lost the key to a new era.
In the early days of a large number of Korean online games entering the Chinese market, Korean companies that only wanted to accumulate wealth lacked reverence for Chinese companies and the market. The contradictions between the two sides have gradually intensified, forcing some insecure Chinese games to no longer be at ease as agents.
After Shanda signed the agency right of "Legend", South Korea unilaterally announced the termination of the contract due to the "private service" (equivalent to online game piracy) in the Chinese market, and shanda directly acquired the parent company of "Legend". The agent storm of "Audition" has made Jiuyou.com, which is preparing to go public, turn against the Korean side.
At that time, experts in the game industry analyzed that Korean developers often harbored a sense of fear about the improvement of domestic operators' research and development capabilities. This is the root cause of the inability of Chinese and Korean game companies to handle the relationship well.
Korean games have enriched Chinese game companies and given them the capital to stand on their own. With the rise of Chinese games and the maturity of the market, Kim Jong-joo's "two axes" have lost their power.
These tricks can be used by Korean game companies, and chinese game companies can also use them. In fact, Tencent's "QQ Tang" and "QQ Flying Car" are living examples.
With the rise of mobile, mobile games have become the best alternative to online games, and the change of dynasty has accelerated the decline of Korean game companies.
When developing mobile games, Korean game companies such as Nexon hardly consider the needs of Chinese players for mobile games, and often directly transplant terminal games to mobile games. The small mobile phone screen is crammed with virtual buttons, and the player experience can be imagined.
Of course, Chinese players do not buy it, and it just so happens that mobile games are a category with a low research and development threshold, and Chinese companies have been able to get rid of their excessive dependence on foreign game manufacturers.
After losing their competitive advantage, Nexon and other Korean game companies began to "fry cold rice" and launched mobile game versions of old IPs such as "Running Kart", and the response was mediocre.
On the contrary, the Momentum of the Chinese Game is fierce. In 2018, there were 91 Chinese-made games listed on Google Play in South Korea, but none of the Korean games were exported to China. The history of the Chinese market being toyed with by Korean companies has turned the page.
The following year, some desperate Nexon even wanted to sell himself to Tencent, but Tencent refused.
After being rejected, Nexon returned to the "buy, buy, buy" path, dying unrepentant. As long as it is not spent on developing games, wherever the money is spent can be discussed. In recent years, Nexon has learned tesla to buy a lot of bitcoin, invest in film and television companies, entertainment companies, and try to save its own decline by relying on side business, and the results are also very dismal.
Serious company, who is engaged in side business? Companies that take shortcuts will eventually be buried by shortcuts.
At present, Nexon's biggest income is still the DNF supported by Chinese players - eight million warriors save the world in the continent of Arad, while also maintaining Nexon's decency.
The NPC: "Today is another day of hope!" "It always rings after the player has landed.
But where is Nexon's hope?
【References】
[1] Interface News "Korea's largest game company Nexon founder Kim Jong-joo died at the age of 54"[2] Daily Economic News "Korea's third richest man, founder of the largest game company Kim Jong-joo died, only 54 years old, you may have played his company's game"[3] Jinan Times "Korea's third richest man died, once produced a run kart, adventure island, Counter-Strike"
[4] Nikkei Chinese.com, "Korean game company Nexon wants to use Chinese experience to open up Japan"
[5] Tencent Technology", "Closely following Tesla, South Korean game giant Nexon buys $100 million worth of bitcoin"
——END——
Welcome to pay attention to [Huashang Taoluo], recognize the heroes, and read the legend of Taoli.
All rights reserved, unauthorized reproduction is prohibited!
Some of the images come from the Internet
If infringement is involved, please contact to delete it