36Kr learned that ARM cloud game technology solution service provider "Fast Disk Technology" recently completed tens of millions of yuan Pre-A round of financing, led by Tiantu Capital, with Abundant Capital and 37 Interactive Entertainment [stock code: 002555] and Yuanhe Capital as the financial advisor. In addition, in the early days of its establishment, the company received angel round financing jointly invested by Xiang Hailong (former senior vice president of Baidu) and Xinyi Capital, and the old shareholders of the Pre-A round invested additionally in Hailong and Xinyi Capital.
Founder CEO Zheng Junkai said that after this round of financing, the funds will be mainly used to improve the existing service system and new technology research and development. In terms of technical solutions for cloud games and cloud trial play, Quick Drive Technology will continue to focus on ARM architecture, exert efforts on SaaS capabilities and continue to improve The technical strength of PaaS, provide cloud gaming technology solutions for upstream and downstream customers in the game industry, improve efficiency for B-side customers, and jointly promote the development of cloud games with industry participants.
As the lead investor in this round of investment, Li Jinghe, managing director of Tiantu Capital, and Pei Lan, vice president of Tiantu Capital, said: "At present, the cloud game industry as a whole is in an early stage, and Fast Disk Technology has been established for less than a year, and has signed contracts to serve a number of leading listed company customers, and completed the product launch, covering the bilateral market of game companies and APP media platforms. Quick Disk Technology Cloud Game Technology Solution in the user experience, stability, fluency, clarity, in terms of technology delivery have been recognized, at the same time, the cost control ability is also constantly improving, the current technical solutions in the industry has obvious competitiveness, I believe that the experienced Fast Disk team can develop rapidly. ”
"Shanghai Quick Disk Network Technology Co., Ltd." is an ARM cloud gaming technology solution service provider, which can provide H5 (cloud trial play) and native (cloud game) full-stack technology solutions according to the needs of game customers, and support WeChat and Alipay online payment.
Group photo of the founders of Quick Disk Technology
The founding team of Fast Disk Technology is mainly from Baidu, founder and CEO Zheng Junkai was the general manager of Baidu's game business; co-founder and COO Gui Jingjing was the head of Baidu App Express Edition and Baidu ARM cloud game business; co-founder and CTO Yu Hongtao is the founder and CTO of the original moment multi-party call software and CTO.
<h3>Fast Disc Technology technology and services</h3>
In 2019, Zheng Junkai and Gui Jingjing have achieved 300,000 DAU in the ARM cloud game service on Baidu, accumulating the scheduling ability of 20,000 instances, and the image quality of ARM cloud games is stable at 1080P+60 frames and 20-40MS.
Screenshot of a cloud game using a Fast Drive technology solution
During their tenure at Baidu, Zheng Junkai and Gui Jingjing led the development of cloud gaming technology solutions based on ARM architecture. After the establishment of Fast Disk Technology, in addition to the mature technical capabilities accumulated before, its business model of opening up upstream and downstream is also one of the engines for the rapid development of Fast Disk Technology. In the S2B2C mode, Quick Disk Technology can provide services for upstream CP and downstream media, integrate the technology, scenario, content and commercialization of cloud games, and launch a closed-loop cloud game technology solution with a higher degree of integration.
Fast Disk Technology provides customers with two options:
The H5 (Cloud Trial Play) program can directly generate URL trial links for mobile games, which can be used for official websites, trial bookings, purchases, brand searches, live interactions, content marketing, social fission, and recall of old players. Among them, the download conversion rate of the "play while playing" function reached 25% (the downloaded content is a native cloud game client with a size of about 2MB), and the overall delivery ability has been recognized by the customers of the big factory.
Native (cloud game) solution, can generate 2MB cloud game client, for games with large packages, with the iteration of game content and the continuous improvement of screen quality, there is no need to worry about the problem of game clients being too large due to improving quality, and solve the experience problems such as loading and updating brought about by subcontracting. In terms of data, the average online time of cloud games is 40 minutes +, the average next-day retention can reach 40%+, and the 7-day retention can reach 20%+, and the paid data can basically be equal to most mobile games.
Through nearly 4 years of cloud game operation practice, the founding team of Kuaipan Technology has solved a series of technical and operational problems such as mobile game cloud technology, system adaptation, account opening, one-click login, cloud archiving, user conversion, user scale, mirroring, IP risk control, etc., and realized business landing in NetEase Cloud Music and other scenarios. After opening up the chain of technology, scenarios and content, Fast Disk Technology also developed its own payment channel technology for cloud games to realize online payment for cloud games and finally complete the closed loop of the program.
Screenshot of cloud game recharge
Tan Qunzhao, founding partner of Houre Capital, said: "With the advent of the 5G era, cloud games are a revolutionary technology that changes the pattern of the game industry, and cloud games have increasingly become a key trend in the development of the game industry. On the one hand, cloud games have greatly reduced the cost of advertising for traditional game distribution channels; on the other hand, cloud games provide more convenient and diversified game content for various platform-level APPS, thus expanding many new distribution channels. The products and business models of the Fast Disk team are highly in line with the specific conditions and development direction of the Chinese game market. ”
Lin Junquan, vice president of 37 Interactive Entertainment Investment, said: "In the current market environment, Fast Market is one of the few teams with deep game industry background and technical background, and the solution has been highly recognized by the internal technical team. Cloud gaming is one of the key strategic directions for the future of Sanqi, and we look forward to working together with Fast Drive to bring more innovative entertainment experiences to Generation Z. ”
<h3>Differentiated choices for cloud server architectures</h3>
The x86 architecture or ARM architecture represents high-power PC console games and mobile games respectively, both of which have different player groups. Enterprises on the cloud gaming track have also gradually seen a trend of polarization.
In fact, the cost problem has been plaguing major public clouds, CP and distributors, and The PAAS+ SAAS solution based on the ARM architecture of Fast Disk Technology has effectively solved this problem. In addition, as apple (M1 chip), NVIDIA and other giants begin to exert efforts on the ARM chip side, there will be more ARM-based software and hardware ecology in the future, the cost of ARM cloud services has the opportunity to obtain a larger space to fall, and content also has the opportunity to usher in a new outbreak.
"Cloud games are not new, and now that it has reached the stage of productization, everyone is very concerned about reducing costs and increasing efficiency." It took us 2 years, dozens of people to invest, and pay a lot of tuition to figure out the account. Fast Disk Technology currently has dozens of cloud games are serving users, the cost of each DAU (cloud service + bandwidth) is about 20% of the DAUarpu value, we have a high cost performance in the industry, and our ARM cloud game solution has brought customers incremental space and considerable profit margins. Zheng Junkai said.
It is worth mentioning that in the lateral test of 36Kr, most of the games can get a good game experience with a comprehensive delay of less than 50ms after clouding, and a small number of games that require stronger real-time operability need to control the delay at about 10ms. With the optimization of technical solutions and the improvement of the network environment, it is believed that more CPs and publishers will choose "cloud games" as a new form of distribution/promotion in 2021, and more differentiated choice strategies for x86 and ARM architectures will appear.
Since the joint efforts of major domestic game manufacturers and cloud service manufacturers, there have been a number of cloud game platforms with different background advantages such as START, Migu Express, NetEase Cloud Games, Mushroom Cloud Games, etc. in China, and cloud game products customized by CP independent works such as Miha Cloud Games have also been launched, and the domestic cloud game industry is steadily advancing towards a 100-billion-level market scale.
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I am 36Kr analyst Liu Shiwu, concerned about the game and e-sports industry, email: [email protected], please indicate your identity and the reason for the expansion, thank you.