Shi Yuzhu, a business tycoon destined to leave a name in China's business history. His entrepreneurial experience is full of legends, and some people say that the prototype of "Big Time" starring Duan Yihong is him.
Shi Yuzhu is unique in that he does not make much money, and his name is not prominent in today's Forbes list. And it is that his vision is extremely accurate, every time he can step on the stroke, computers, real estate, online games, health care products, do a line of fire.
This innate acumen allowed him to make a comeback even after encountering major setbacks. There were so many short-lived business cases, and there were only a few comebacks, and he did.
In 1999, the Giant Group founded by Shi Yuzhu collapsed after losing 200 million yuan in debt, and this experience was included in Wu Xiaobo's book "The Great Defeat", warning Chinese entrepreneurs.
When the average entrepreneur encounters this kind of thing, he will rush to transfer assets before bankruptcy liquidation, learn from Jia Yueting, and walk away to be a rich man in the United States.
But Shi Yuzhu did not, he was very stubborn, a bit like Luo Yonghao, carrying the insult of "Lao Lai", secretly engaged in a health care product called "Brain Platinum".
Some people say that brain platinum is melatonin, which has no other effect than sleep aids. In any case, Brain Platinum succeeded, and Shi Yuzhu paid off the arrears.
In 2006, Shi Yuzhu entered online games again, using "Journey" to fight a turnaround battle in the gaps of "World of Warcraft", "Legend", "Miracle" and "Fantasy Journey to the West". How much money did Shi Yuzhu make from "The Journey"?
There are many different statements, one version is a monthly net profit of 150 million; another version says that a total of 50 billion yuan has been earned in more than a decade; according to Giant's financial report, "Journey" earned 850 million yuan a year in 2019. Whichever way it is more realistic, it is undeniable that "The Journey" was too successful.
But after "The Journey", Shi Yuzhu seems to be "dumb" on the online game, no longer able to make a phenomenon-level game, and eat the old version of "Conquest" year after year. In fact, the dud is only a superficial phenomenon, and Shi Yuzhu has already quietly laid out overseas and earned money from foreigners.
After "The Journey", why did the giants mute?
Giant Dud has a lot to do with the rise of Tencent. Tencent has the huge user base of WeChat and QQ as the backing, and uses almost zero cost to divert traffic to its own games.
In the years when "Journey" was popular, Tencent's game works were still in the copycat stage. South Korea has "Bubble Hall", Tencent engages in "QQ Hall"; South Korea has "Running Kart", Tencent engages in "QQ Flying Car"; South Korea has "Audition", Tencent engages in "QQ Dance".
Tencent's train of thought says that the good point is called "crossing the river by touching the stones of Koreans", and the ugly point is plagiarism. To this end, Tencent has been saddled with a huge insult, and many people have scorned this behavior and refused to play Tencent's game.
Under the background of Tencent, "Journey" is very special, and its core gameplay is absolutely Original Chinese, just two words: Krypton gold. Shi Yuzhu seized on the weaknesses of human nature and played the banner of free online games.
You know, at that time, The online games of Fire "World of Warcraft", "Legend", "Miracle", and "Fantasy Journey to the West" were all billed by point cards.
The point card mode sets a threshold for people who want to play the game, whether you like it or not, if you want to play the game, you will charge the money first. At that time, the main force of playing online games was the student party, and there was not much money in the pocket, so many people were discouraged.
Shi Yuzhu's "Journey" hyped up the concept of free, attracted all the people who had no money to recharge the card, and instantly accumulated a huge user base. Then, Shi Yuzhu released a second big move: prop charging.
The game is free to play, but players who want to get stronger must pay for various props.
In order to become the "emperor", all kinds of big men did not hesitate to throw thousands of dollars, and famous bigwigs such as "Central Plains Thugs", "Zongheng Jade Emperor", "Follow the Wind", "Ask Tianyu", "Dachu Guard", etc., each charged tens of millions of yuan, relying on his own strength to support the entire server, so that Shi Yuzhu made a lot of money.
Players who can't afford to pay can only act as tool people, following behind the big guys and waving the flag. Shi Yuzhu had never thought of earning Di Si's money, but Di Si was indispensable, otherwise who would have been killed by a knife by the big guy?
In 2007, a player charged 200,000 yuan to buy a set of equipment, felt good about himself and ran to PK with people, looking for a sense of achievement, and was put down by two knives. This player was angry, but said on the public screen of "Journey": "The equipment bought by Lao Tzu for 200,000 yuan was cut down by two knives? The player who put him down replied humorously: "Lao Tzu's 300,000-strong purchase of equipment 'slash you' actually requires two knives." "This is the game environment of Journey, which has nothing to do with technology and effort, and the charge determines everything.
It can only be said that Shi Yuzhu understands human nature too well. Online games are projections of real life in the virtual world, Hegel said: Seeking recognition from others, looking for superiority is human nature.
Many people do not understand, some business tycoons, such as Ma Yun, have earned so much money and cannot spend it for several lifetimes, why should they work hard?
In fact, their happiness has nothing to do with more money and less money, and the motivation to make money desperately is only to gain the approval of others and satisfy their own vanity. The motivation of the Kryptonian gold gangster of "Journey" also begins here, not only to be respected in life, but also to dominate the server in online games.
While "The Journey" was successful, it was met with great criticism. Players are discussing: Is there value in money-based games? I am not as good as others in life, and I want to succeed by my own efforts in the game, and as a result, the world of "Journey" fails as much as reality, and there is no need to find happiness in the game.
At this time, Tencent changed its business strategy, no longer taking pleasure in plagiarism, but instead merging and absorbing, which reversed the brand image to a certain extent.
For example, "League of Legends", an American game, Tencent did not copy a "Legend of Heroes", but invested in this American company, obtained the agency right, tied its own interests with the American company, and single-mindedly helped "League of Legends" to open up the domestic market.
"League of Legends" and "Journey", free to play, but the cost of props is very different, the purchase of "League of Legends" "skin" will not let players get the thrill of a knife and a second, the underlying logic of the entire game is the spelling technology.
No matter how many skins the big guy has, he can cook technically, and there is no chance to hit the strongest king. A rural guy who has no money to buy skins, but has a high game talent and can climb to the strongest king by his own ability. That's the fundamental difference between Games like League of Legends and Journey — fairer.
Shi Yuzhu could not accept such game logic, and he did not seem to believe that any player would spend money on a "skin" that could not become stronger.
Later, the Tencent mobile game "Glory of kings" inherited a similar logic, the skin can make players stronger to a limited extent, and it is still a fair game overall. The success of "Glory of Kings" is beyond doubt, and the flow of a Spring Festival is as high as 10 billion.
The gameplay of "Journey" Extreme Krypton gold has been eliminated, and none of the successors have eaten anything more ugly than "Journey", at least on the surface they all contain emotional pulses, promoting micro-krypton, and zero Kr players can get the game experience.
Later, Shi Yuzhu realized the problem and launched a green version of "Journey", but it did not have much impact.
Moved overseas, mergers and acquisitions and listings
Tencent's strength has overwhelmed domestic game companies, and the only two that can compete with Tencent, NetEase and Mihayou, are still far from Tencent in terms of comprehensive strength. Not to mention the giant network, the idea of storming the domestic market and wanting to create a second "Journey" is unrealistic.
Shi Yuzhu set his sights on overseas.
In 2016, Giant Networks spent $30 billion to acquire an American gaming platform called Playtika. Playtika business is very complicated to say, the simple understanding is "online game version of Las Vegas", engaged in online spinach.
Playtika started with a simple slot game and developed into a variety of spinach game complexes, with a turnover of more than 15 billion yuan a year.
Network spinach is to take advantage of the weakness of human nature, and the logic of filling money to open treasure chests in "The Journey" is no different, it is all gambling, kryptonite gold, the only stable profit is the person who pumps water behind it.
Shi Yuzhu wanted to merge Playtika into the business of Giant Network and push up the price of Giant in A shares, but due to the spinach problem, Giant tossed for three years and failed to do so.
In desperation, Playtika chose to list on the NASDAQ, and Shi Yuzhu had more listed companies under his name. When people thought that Shi Yuzhu was "incorruptible and old", he quietly tossed out an overseas market.
In 2021, Playtika's net profit was 1.8 billion, an increase of 234% year-on-year, and giant network net profit rolled around 800 million per year. Although Shi Yuzhu is not as good as the top big man, his strength is still not to be underestimated, as long as there is a small outlet, he has the capital to take off at any time.
This outlet may be the metacosm.
The metacosm is very controversial, and there are all the people who step on it, Zhou Hongyi said that the metacosm is a scam, and Shi Yuzhu said that the metacosm is the future. Giant Network has begun to lay out in the meta-universe business, and has formed a technical team to gradually explore.
As for whether the Giant Entry Meta universe is a concept hype or a card slot outlet, it will take time to test.