407 Discouraging Investors
January 26th, Wednesday…
Dream Realization Ventures…
Pei Qian sipped his tea, wandering beyond the sky while listening to He Desheng's report. Pei Qian felt a little empty even though he should be very happy now that Ruan Guangjian was gone and the last of his exams were over.
There was one more week to Chinese New Year. Most of his classmates had returned home, but Pei Qian had to continue working hard in the office.
Why did he have to suffer so!
He wanted to delegate to someone else, oh no, just let it all go… but there was no way. It would come back to haunt him.
There were two activities for Dream Realization Ventures. One was the IOI's local server, and the other was 'Top Student, Come Quick' app.
At present, the testing conditions of IOI in Europe and the United States were pretty good. Theoretically speaking, they had to start preparations for the local server.
At this stage, many local games companies had noticed IOI gaining momentum in the Europe and America testing period. They were trying to win the agency rights of the local server as soon as possible.
They only realized that the agency rights had been given when they went to ask Finger Games about it.
Therefore, they could only hope that Dream Realization Ventures resell the IOI agency rights for its local server.
The prices offered naturally increased with the ample demand.
"Boss Pei, so do we… sell?" He Desheng ended the long report, finally touching the questions of the soul.
Pei Qian was silent for the moment. "Tell me what the highest offer price is now again."
He Desheng, "35 million yuan."
Pei Qian put down his teacup silently, wanting to lament the heavens.
Thirty-five million yuan!
The rights for the local agency in the hands of Dream Realization Ventures was a sweetener when he bought Finger Games.
At that time, it only cost Finger Games 20 million yuan to buy 20% of Finger Games' shares. The shares were still in their hands. Just selling the agency rights for the local server would get them 35 million yuan.
Such speed of churning money.
Pei Qian shook his head immediately. "Reject all of them, not selling!"
Pei Qian knew very well that he would not be able to make a loss in this cycle if he were to sell it!
What could he do to spend more than 30 million yuan more now that he was two months away from the settlement? It was too risky!
Therefore, he must not sell it!
He Desheng agreed deeply, "Yes, I think so too! 35 million yuan is too little. You can definitely sell it for higher if you were to hold it in hand for a while more!"
Pei Qian, "?"
He Desheng continued with joy on his face. "Boss Pei, I did my homework. Agency fees paid by local games companies for foreign games are reaching astronomical figures!
"The agency fee for the previous version of Fantasy World was 30 million US dollars, nearly 200 million yuan!
"If that's the case, IOI popularity in the future might even reach the level of 'Fantasy World'. They want to buy from us at only 35 million yuan now? Not possible!
"Of course, this is also because IOI had just started its testing phase, and Finger Games itself is virtually unknown.
"In short, we don't need to worry now. The agency fee will definitely increase again as long as IOI's popularity abroad continues to swell!"
Pei Qian was speechless.
We're thinking about two different issues, alright!
Pei Qian's thoughts were on the settlement of this cycle going down the wrong way if he were to sell it now. There would be no place to spend the 35 million yuan so it could not be sold now.
On the other hand, He Desheng thought 35 million yuan was obviously still too low—that the price would still increase!
Pei Qian felt like selling instead after hearing He Desheng's words.
However, he gave it some thought and decided that he should not sell.
In the short term, selling would affect the settlement. Looking at it in the long term, however, if IOI could really make billions of yuan; then why wouldn't Pei Qian just simply lie down and make the money.
After thinking about it for a while, Pei Qian said, "What I mean is that we cannot sell it. We have to open another company to be fully responsible for the operation of the IOI local server!"
He Desheng was stunned momentarily before nodding his head immediately. "That's good as well! We'll be able to hold this cash cow in our hands and let it spin money for us then!"
Pei Qian was speechless.
Think whatever you will! I don't want to explain anymore! So tired!
Pei Qian decided to set up his own company to operate IOI's local servers mainly for two reasons.
First, it would be suspicious if he obtained the agency rights for the local server without selling it or doing anything himself.
Second, operating it himself meant he could spend more money!
The server requirements for IOI and GOG as a real-time battle game were amongst the highest amongst Tengda Games's current games. A huge amount was bound to be spent for the server fees.
At the same time, IOI's initial publicity would definitely require a lot of money.
This way, he could at least be guaranteed a loss during this period.
As for the future…
If IOI did become a cash cow and ended up making so much that he could not make a loss, then Pei Qian could simply let it sit. He would then make a profit conversion ratio of 1000:1 to earn some pocket money.
Pei Qian did not want to think too much about the problem of IOI. He could not sell it now anyway so he could only grit his teeth to do it this way.
"Anyway, there's no need to hurry. We can wait until after Chinese New Year.
"What about 'Top Student, Come Quick'?
"The three million yuan previously should have been all spent by now, right?" Pei Qian asked casually.
The 'Top Student, Come Quick' project had been constantly burning money during this period. There were holes everywhere; no matter whether it was in advertisements or in subsidies.
It might not be burning as fast as the shared bicycles, but the initial funds were only three million. It was easy to spend all in no time.
He Desheng nodded. "Soon, there is less than one million yuan left in the accounts.
"Not to worry, Boss Pei. There are a few investment firms that showed a strong interest in investing in 'Top Student, Come Quick' and would like to invest some more!"
The teacup that had reached Pei Qian's lips stopped their motion. "…huh?"
Why did they want to invest in such an unreliable project? Did your brains burn out?
The 'Top Student, Come Quick' app had been revised.
Pei Qian discovered that this app had a bad tendency to become a dating platform previously. He had taken decisive measures and made major changes to some functions. There were no more gender in the user options on the platform and no photo—only names and default avatars.
One would only be able to see the good rating and system default labels that others give the top students on their profile. For example, they could use the following: good teaching attitude, patience, easy-to-understand, and so on.
The homepage of flunkies was similar. Good ratings and system default labels such as 'listens carefully', good learning attitude, polite, etc.
The flunkies would fill in their requirements on their apps, including the subject, time, and agreed place that they needed tutoring according to the current standard process. The top students would take the orders objectively, and the chat software attached to the software would be used throughout the process. The party would not be able to know the other party's gender and appearance clearly during the entire process.
Of course, some people would definitely try to ask the gender of the other party before meeting. In that case, the app had specially designed a 'one-click complaint' function. It would automatically submit the chat records of the parties for review and stop all communication between them after it was clicked.
Once it was verified an account had tried to obtain the gender or appearance of the other party, the account would be suspended and punished immediately. That would range from the deduction of reputation points to permanent closure of that ID and mobile number.
The number of active users of this new version of the app plummeted immediately!
That was because a large number of users joined the platform with impure purposes. They just treated it as a platform to meet the opposite sex.
It was just like in the taxi-hailing software where many drivers would deliberately pick up pretty girls and hit on them in private. There was no shortage of such people in the 'Top Student, Come Quick' app.
What was more, it was easy to fall prey to such situations with face-to-face tutoring. It would be much worse than taxi-hailing software if allowed to develop.
The new version completely extinguished the delusions of this group of people. It was very normal for the popularity of this app to plummet.
Pei Qian originally thought that it would deal a blow so heavy to the 'Top Student, Come Quick' project that it would successfully burn all the millions in no time.
He did not think that there would be investment firms who want to continue pumping money into it.
Pei Qian was deep in thought.
He had originally planned to burn out the three million yuan quickly and then announce that the project had failed to let it cool off naturally.
Yet, someone was rushing to send money to this project before all the money was even spent!
Pei Qian wanted to reject them, but there was no valid reason!
Boss Li's Fu Hui Investments invested one million yuan; the other investment firms would not need a lot of shares. This 'Top Student, Come Quick' project was currently lacking money…
What sort of reason should he reject it with?
Pei Qian thought for a moment and had an idea.
Tell these companies about the unreliable aspects of the project and let them retreat!
Pei Qian said to He Desheng, "Call these investment firms immediately and make two things clear to them."
"First, ask them why they want to invest in the 'Top Student, Come Quick' project."
"Second, clarify all the current problems that 'Top Student, Come Quick' is facing and explain the risks involved!"
The first purpose of the first question was very simple. He just wanted to know what these people saw as reliable points in the project. He wanted to change those aspects of it.
He Desheng was confused.
What did Boss Pei mean? Why would these companies invest in 'Top Student, Come Quick'? Definitely because they feel this project was reliable!
That should be a question the investment firms ask; they were the investors while we were the recipients!
He Desheng thought hard. Could Boss Pei hope I can use this method to reverse the situation of this project? Deepen my understanding of investment methodologies?
Hm, this is one valid explanation.
But why does Boss Pei want me to tell the investors the risks in this project?
Other project owners try to fool investment firms as much as possible, telling them only the good side so that they could get more money.
Would people still invest in me if I gave my trump card away?
He Desheng did not understand, but he did not dare ask anymore when he saw Boss Pei's firm eyes. He just dialed the phone numbers of these investment firms one by one.
Pei Qian listened on by his side.
He Desheng was very obedient. He did exactly what Pei Qian asked of him. He first asked the other party for their views of the 'Top Student, Come Quick' project and then told them about the problems currently faced by the project.
For example, how the current active users were not able to support market demand, how the popularity and daily activity of the app had plummeted after the update, and how their functions were relatively singular.
As expected, he managed to dissuade two companies!
These investment firms had to do some research before investing, but there was always some internal information which they could not obtain.
Some of these investment firms simply took a fancy to the education industry as a promising sunrise industry and Tengda and Fu Hui Investments' backing. They felt that this would be a relatively reliable project based on these factors, which was why they were considering an investment.
However, He Desheng made the real situation very clear now, emphasizing the huge risks faced by this project—which could lose everything.
Therefore, some investment firms beat a retreat immediately.
The enthusiasm of the three investment firms he called were all put out after the calls. Their preparation to invest money degenerated to a wait-and-see state.
