609 The Third-Largest Comic Company

"Even though we developed our own capabilities, we have never stopped buying character IPs. We have a huge place in the GOG creative area to showcase the character IPs we bought and to allow players to collect them," Bao Xu continued.

"GOG world server is currently lacking in this area!"

"That's right, we are indeed lacking in that!" Min Jingchao said in realization.

"The character IPs we have bought until now are characters with a little influence locally, but none at all when it comes to overseas. These character IPs are foreign to them.

"Comparing the current GOG hero storage to IOI, they might have the advantage locally, but the reverse is true overseas. Players overseas might be more tolerant towards the heroes of IOI.

"That is a very crucial point that we have to address!"

Ye Zhizhou gave it some thought. "Then, what if we are to create an online GOG creative site?"

Min Jingchao shook his head. "No, GOG creative sites can only make good things on the precondition that there are enough players and that a large number of them participate.

"However, GOG does not have many overseas players now. We'll definitely not be able to gather good works if we are to make a creative site now. This money would either not be able to be spent or it would be spent meaninglessly.

"You should buy some international successful IPs!

"This way, it would have the same publicity effect as big-shot celebrities or even better because the target audience would be clearer. We can code these successful IPs into the game; it is much better than to get a celebrity to endorse it!"

Ye Zhizhou became excited. "Understood! As expected, this should be the answer that Boss Pei wants!"

Everyone discussed again and became even more convinced that 'buy IPs' was the best answer to Boss Pei's puzzle. It should also be something that Boss Pei had considered.

This 'buy IPs'' direction was the original principle from when GOG developed. It was now pushed into the world server and required an IP widely accepted by overseas players.

"Everyone, don't be too happy so fast. We have not fully deciphered Boss Pei's problem," Li Yada reminded everyone.

"We've decided to buy IPs, but how do we buy? Which one to buy?

"20 million US dollars will definitely not be enough if we were to buy those famous heroes since most overseas companies are eyeing them as well. The copyrights of those dramatized ones would be sky-high.

"Buying expensive big IPs will probably not be in line with Boss Pei's original intentions since Boss Pei never buys expensive big IPs locally.

"It's different from domestic markets. We have to get an IP that is influential enough for the publicity to have the effect."

Everyone entered a state of argument.

Finally, Li Yada suggested, "Therefore, we have two ways now. The first way is to buy two internationally successful IP; the second is to buy a large number of not so well known IPs that international players can identify with.

"Since we are unsure, we can send both answers to Boss Pei and let him decide."

Ye Zhizhou nodded and stood up. "Understood, thank you, everyone! I'll go back to do a simple investigation before we let Boss Pei make the final decision!"

…

…

August 10th, Wednesday…

Pei Qian received Ye Zhizhou's phone call not long after he woke up.

"Boss Pei, we have come up with GOG's international server publicity proposal! We want to buy some international character IPs to put them into the game!

"However, we now have a problem. Should we buy one or two famous international character IPs, or should we buy a few more character IPs that are not so well-known but will match international players' wants?"

Pei Qian thought about it for a while before replying. "The latter."

Such international character IPs would be too painful. Pei Qian was afraid that IOI would not be able to rival them. Such a worry might be strange, but it was not at all unreasonable.

The GOG game itself was already much better than IOI: a client-side game with reasonable fees and a whole load of character heroes. The game machine was easier to get used to and to spread.

Moreover, GOG was now being promoted overseas. There were two main points: its inability to adapt and the chances of its name spreading.

Unable to adapt was mainly from the fear of the hero's image not fitting overseas players' tastes and being unable to be localized.

Buying IPs could indeed solve this problem. However, if it was to purchase international famous IPs, Pei Qian was afraid that it would be too high-handed and kill IOI instantly. Then, he would not be able to spend money overseas as happily.

It was better to buy the smallest IPs and toy with IOI slowly. Using a blunt knife to slice the meat away little by little, it was much better for the fight.

Ye Zhizhou agreed, "Alright, we'll choose some more value for money and not so well-known character IPs. We'll report to you again after some time."

…

Ye Zhizhou looked at Lin Wan and Wang Xiaobin excitedly after he hung up the phone. "Boss Pei decided! As expected, that is the right answer! We are unbeatable in deciphering Boss Pei's intentions when both of our gaming departments join forces!"

The Lin Family looked at the materials in her hands. "Don't celebrate prematurely. There is still a lot of work to be done. The United States has so many superhero characters; how are we to choose? Which one of these is suitable for Europe?"

Everyone could feel headaches approaching looking at the long list of heroes' names in English.

The appearance of superheroes could be traced back to the early 1930s. The list had grown astronomical throughout the decades of development.

Everyone had difficult choices to make:

The heroes that everyone knew were very expensive. Boss Pei decided not to buy them.

No one knew the cheaper heroes so how were they to decide if the international players would like them or not?

Who knew that these not so well-known heroes were not so well-known because they were developed at an inopportune time or because they were failures that no one liked?

It would be okay if it was the former, but if it was the latter, then it would be a waste of money by GOG to purchase such trash.

"Let's not think about the two biggest comic companies. They should be bought by all the big corporations for hundreds of millions of US dollars. We will not be able to obtain any advantage," Ye Zhizhou said.

"Moreover, their conditions will be very strict. What we can buy will probably just be for the game copyrights. Buying some lesser-known character IPs may work, but there would also be restrictions, and their prices might not be acceptable to use. Their price-quality ratios would be worse."

"Let's not consider them then; let's continue on." Lin Wan said.

"We… seem to be able to buy the third-largest comic company in the United States. There was news two days ago that they are going bankrupt," Ye Zhizhou said after he continued reading for a while.

Lin Wan instinctively felt something wrong and asked, "The third-largest comic company is going bust? What is their market share?"

Ye Zhizhou: "Less than 5%."

Lin Wan: "…"

Wang Xiaobin was taken aback as well and complained. "If the third-largest comic company does not even have 5% market share, then does that mean the United States only has three comic companies?

"Of course not, but that is what was indicated in the materials," Ye Zhizhou replied in a jolly manner.

"I can only say that it is the current status of the industry. The first two comic companies are humongous and have about 40% market share each. The third to the tenth companies share 10% of the market while the rest is shared by even smaller companies.

"These two companies have too many superhero IPs; the market is only so big. They release comics and movies. They are of totally different leagues from the other companies."

Lin Wan nodded. "Um, typical 80/20 market share. The big companies own 80% of the market share.

"No wonder, 'third-largest comic company in the United States' may sound scary, but in fact, they only hold less than 5% market share. Moreover, they have to fight with the two big giants before them. They must find it very difficult to fight. It's no wonder they are going bankrupt."

Ye Zhizhou took the laptop and quickly read the relevant information. "Yes, traditional comic styles are no longer popular. These huge comic companies earn money from movies. The comics are like huge inspirational storage where they could obtain materials at any time for a steady flow of movies.

"However, it would just be even more difficult for those that had a small market share but not able to afford to make movies.

"This Hurricane Comic Company has a few good points. They don't only use superheroes as materials. They are more diversified. A more diversified image is better for GOG as it would mean they have more choices.

"They have a few IPs that seem to be able to fulfill westerners' taste… for example, Purgatory Duke, Mutants, and Robocop.

"There was one thing very important: they had an international IP image… 20 years ago!

"The Multifaceted Man was made into a movie in 1993. They were nominated for many Oscar categories, but they did not win it. They invested 27 million US dollars and obtained a global box office of 340 million US dollars. It was top 4 in grossing for that year. The main actor's remuneration increased twenty-fold after he finished filming this movie.

"However, Hurricane Comic Company was not the investor so they did not obtain much benefit. That was its last glory. Their popularity was on a decline after that.

"It's just that… the good part is the character IP of the Multifaceted Man is still rather popular. Many westerners should find him familiar. More than half of Hurricane Comic Company's value is on this IP.

"It might feel like we are picking up from the trash, but I have to say that this trash feels rather worthwhile."