Reborn in 08, a heretical cultivator starting a business

Chapter 102 caused a sensation across the internet, giving him a valuation of 5 billion! (Seeking first subscription)

Wang Junshan's expression changed slightly: "Quickly contact the original poster and pay them to delete the post!"

"Boss, it's too late. The page views have reached millions, and there are tens of thousands of replies. Similar posts are everywhere on Tianya, and even posts about adding each other on WeChat and stealing each other's virtual crops are commonplace."

Shen Huaijin shrugged, looking rather helpless.

"!!!" Wang Junshan was utterly exasperated: "WeChat Farm has only been online for a week, and it can't even survive this long!"

Hey!
A sigh, filled with helplessness.

Won't someone copy this very soon?

As expected, this caused a sensation among major internet companies!

Kaixin.com headquarters.

"President, look at this post."

"WeChat Farm has surpassed five million players in just one week since its launch!"

"Fuck!"

"Really?" Chen Ruihao, president of Kaixin.com, stared in disbelief, then shook his head.

"Our Kaixin.com only reached 5 million users in four months, which is already fast. WeChat Farm reaching 5 million in a week? That's impossible! It's obviously fake!"

The subordinate, however, disagreed: "Chairman, it must be true!"

"Look, many people on Tianya Forum have expressed doubts, but even more people say it's true, and some even post screenshots to prove they're playing it, and they're adding each other as friends to play together and steal vegetables together."

"Now there are posts all over Tianya about people adding each other on WeChat and stealing each other's virtual crops. It doesn't look like they're just faking it!"

"In addition, WeChat has a high number of downloads in major app stores."

"Even on our Kaixin.com, many users have been sharing referral links for 'WeChat Farm' these past few days!"

"Even Kaixin001 has it?" Chen Ruihao's lips twitched, his expression incredibly interesting: "Why hasn't anyone reported it?"

"Well... lately the whole company has been busy copying YouTuan International, doing vertical e-commerce, and rushing to meet deadlines. Plus, we're short-staffed, so it seems we haven't had time to focus on this." The subordinate sounded a little guilty.

Chen Ruihao opened his mouth, but then hesitated to say anything more.

When you're fully focused on something, it's easy to overlook other things.

After a long pause, he sighed, "If 'WeChat Farm' has surpassed five million users, then WeChat's user base must have exceeded six million! It's already surpassed Kaixin001!"

"That's right!"

Chen Ruihao frowned: "Kaixin.com, which launched in April, has been overtaken by WeChat, which launched in June!"

"Great, very good!"

The subordinate was terrified: "President, the main problem is that we were blinded by our own limited perspective. We only focused on the explosive growth of YouTuan International and were busy copying it. We didn't expect WeChat Farm to be even more impressive, achieving this in just one week!"

"Yeah, you're right. We were careless! Who would have thought that a company like YouTuan Technology could produce two blockbuster products in a row?"

"We can't even keep up with all the copying!"

"Yes, U-Tuan International hasn't even finished copying yet. If they give up now and instead copy 'WeChat Farm,' I'm afraid even Happy Mall will be doomed."

"Especially since we've signed agency agreements with brands like San Niu, and their goods have already been delivered to our warehouse. They're just waiting to go live at the end of the month; we can't delay any longer!"

Chen Ruihao nodded: "Indeed, we don't have the time. It would take four months to meticulously copy 'WeChat Farm' and then innovate on it. Reverse engineering and directly copying it, then reskinning it, would also take more than a month. We can't rush it; we should focus on vertical e-commerce first."

"Send an internal email immediately: Kaixin Mall is going to accelerate its full-scale rollout. Everyone is to cancel all vacations and work overtime to catch up on the schedule and strive to launch ten days earlier than planned!"

"What? Ten more days?"

The subordinate's expression changed drastically: "Doesn't that mean it has to go live on the 20th? Won't that put too much pressure on us and make the schedule too rushed?"

Chen Ruihao waved his hand: "Without pressure, there is no motivation. If we don't push them, we'll never know how much potential they have."

"Get the Happy Mall up and running as soon as possible; it must be online by the 20th!"

"Once the Happy Mall is finished, we'll need to find time to hand-copy 'WeChat Farm,' and then we'll name it 'Happy Farm'!"

"Yes!"

Chen Ruihao's expression was grave: "If we don't copy it out quickly, in just a few months, WeChat's user base will be several times that of Kaixin001!"

"Also, block the sharing links for 'WeChat Farm'! Kaixin001 already has a small user base, and if WeChat takes away more of it, wouldn't it be useless?"

"Okay, I'll have WeChat and WeChat Farm completely shut down right away!"

Renren (the school's intranet).

President Sun Yizhou was also on high alert:
"Who would have thought that WeChat would become so popular thanks to 'WeChat Farm'!"

"Although it's still far from our Renren.com's 30 million users, it has already surpassed Kaixin.com. And the growth rate is terrifying."

Vice President Dai Hede strongly agreed: "Five million users in a week is indeed frightening. But it also shows that WeChat Farm has a very promising future."

"That's right. As a social network among acquaintances, WeChat's user base has surged thanks to 'WeChat Farm.' If this trend continues, it will inevitably become our number one enemy."

Sun Yizhou's expression turned solemn: "We must develop a similar product, and we must do it quickly!"

Dai Hede had a plan: "With our capabilities, if we go all out, we can make a similar product in about three months. But right now we're busy copying Kaixin.com, and it won't be until next month when we have time to work on it, and it won't be launched until December."

"No way! If we wait until December to launch, WeChat's user base will probably have already surpassed our Renren.com's!"

"Hiss!" Dai Hede gasped, but upon closer inspection, it was indeed true.

Currently, WeChat Farm has gained 5 million users in a single week. Even if the growth rate slows down, it will still add 10 million users per month. By December, the number of WeChat users will likely exceed 40 million!

In December, Renren's user base is estimated to reach 12 million, and it's quite possible that it will be surpassed!
Dai Hede sighed: "Then why don't we stop the work of copying Kaixin.com? And just develop a 'Campus Farm'?"

Sun Yizhou frowned: "You've already bought the domain name for Kaixin001, right? And the parking space grabbing and friend trading features are almost finished, aren't they?"

"Yes, we've bought them all. The other party raised the price arbitrarily, and the domain name cost 300 million. The work on the game and the fake Kaixin.com clone is also 7% complete, and it should be finished in about half a month."

Sun Yizhou hesitated for a moment, but finally said, "Let's continue with the knock-off. We've already spent so much time and money, what's another half month?"

"However, we can't delay with 'WeChat Farm'. If we don't have time to copy it carefully, then we'll transfer ten people from other places to directly reverse engineer 'WeChat Farm'!"

Dai Hede nodded: "If we just reverse engineer, that'll be simple. I'll lead the team myself!"

"This kind of mini-game is probably similar to the parking space grabbing game on Kaixin001. It is developed using Adobe Flash and can be directly analyzed using decompilation tools such as JPEXS and Sothink SWF Decompiler."

"By parsing the SWF file of WeChat Farm, we can extract the core logic code of WeChat Farm, then capture and analyze packets to simulate the communication protocol, and finally give it a new skin. It can be made in a month!"

"Okay, it's up to you!"

"Don't worry, CEO, I guarantee it will be launched by the end of September!"

Dai Hede was full of confidence.

By borrowing and innovating, it takes three months for Renren.com to perfectly copy a game like "WeChat Farm" and four months for Kaixin.com.

However, simply reverse engineering the core logic code of "WeChat Farm" and repackaging it would take only a month!
Renren.com is very familiar with this kind of work!
They can handle the parking space grabbing game on Kaixin.com in just three weeks!

"Late September? That's not bad. By then, WeChat's user base shouldn't have reached 20 million, so we still have a chance." Sun Yizhou breathed a sigh of relief. "No problem, Chairman, I'll have someone block the sharing links for 'WeChat Farm' right away!"

Dai Hede was full of energy and first blocked the sharing links of "WeChat Farm".

At the same time, elite personnel were selected to form a task force to reverse engineer "WeChat Farm".

Baidu headquarters.

"WeChat Farm is indeed an excellent game, and we need this type of game to promote Baidu Space."

"But we are a large, listed company. Directly copying is not an option. Let's contact ShouChuang Technology and talk about copyright acquisition!"

Li Yan made the final decision.

The subordinate was somewhat surprised and couldn't help but ask, "Chairman, do you have confidence in the development of YouTuan.com?"

Li Yan smiled:

"YouTuan.com's vertical e-commerce is doing very well. If it has the support of Baidu's resources and upgrades into a comprehensive e-commerce platform, it might have a chance to challenge Alibaba's Taobao!"

"With the support of 'WeChat Farm,' if WeChat's social networking among acquaintances really takes off, even if it can't deal a major blow to QQ, it can still annoy Tencent."

"You're saying such a powerful tool shouldn't be in Baidu's hands?"

The subordinate suddenly realized: "I understand, but YouTuan Technology's valuation is too high, it's 5 billion. Even if we invest 20%, it will still be 1 billion. That's no small amount of money."

Li Yan frowned: "Ten billion is indeed not a small amount of money. It depends on how far YouTuan.com develops and whether it can maintain its current daily transaction volume. If it can really maintain it, a valuation of 50 billion is not out of the question!"

Tencent headquarters.

An unusual high-level meeting was urgently convened.

Chairman Ma came in person: "Siying, you know the most about YouTuan Technology, tell us about it."

Huo Siying's expression was extremely complicated:

“Last month, I went to YouTuan Technology to discuss investment, but Wang Junshan just ran away and still wanted a valuation of 50 billion.”

"They anticipated that I would be angry, so they had Tang Jinghe pass on a message saying that YouTuan Technology was worth the price and that there would be big moves to come."

"At the time, none of us believed it."

"But unexpectedly, he really had something big planned, and something this big!"

"With 5 million users in seven days, how much traffic and revenue will WeChat Farm bring to YouTuan.com?"

Xu Tiannian, president of Paipai.com, said in a deep voice: "According to the sales statistics of YouTuan.com, their daily transaction volume has reached 30 million."

"That's useless. 80% of iPhone 3Gs are grey market imports, all of which are gray market products, so it's meaningless. The actual daily transaction volume is only 6 million."

QQ Zone Manager Cui Zhen said, "However, 'WeChat Farm' is very good, and QQ Zone really needs it!"

Xu Tiannian waved his hand and said, "You're wrong, Lao Cui. The market share of iPhone 3G is only 50% now."

"What?! YouTuan International's single-day transaction volume for non-parallel imports exceeded 1500 million!" Cui Zhen's face turned ashen.

Everyone was shocked.

The daily transaction volume of non-parallel imports is 600 million and 1500 million respectively, which are not in the same league!
The valuations differ by 2.5 times, or even 3 times!
Xu Tiannian nodded: "That's right, that's exactly it. Especially for mother and baby products, sales are very high."

"So, according to that calculation, YouTuan.com's annual transaction volume has reached 55 billion!"

"Their demand for a valuation of 50 billion is not a joke, it's reasonable... This..."

The words are not surprising and die endlessly.

Everyone in the room fell silent.

A month ago, when he asked for 5 billion, everyone thought Wang Junshan was joking.

A month later, WeChat Farm was launched, and the number of users surged. It really did achieve that!
Even excluding grey market iPhones, the annual transaction volume can reach 5.5 billion.

This is only 10 billion to 15 billion away from Paipai.com.

Although Paipai.com has 50 million users, its daily active users are very low, only one or two million.

YouTuan.com has fewer than ten million users, but its daily active users are very high, exceeding one million.

Farm players will prioritize YouTuan.com whenever they can make purchases, whether for diamond cashback or to buy fertilizer!
This left Xu Tiannian speechless, and even a little envious. He couldn't help but say:

"If Paipai.com were to follow YouTuan.com's example and offer direct QQ coins as a reward for purchases on Paipai.com, Paipai.com's traffic would skyrocket, its revenue would surge, and its profits would soar! It would even pose a strategic threat to Taobao!"

Unexpectedly, before the supporters could even speak, the president of the value-added services division slammed his fist on the table:

"Old Xu, did you drink fake alcohol?"

"Whether Paipai.com can take off with this approach is hard to say. But the value system that Q coins have painstakingly built up over so many years could be destroyed by you in less than a month!"

"..." Xu Tiannian's lips twitched. Before he could explain, the president of the game division also flew into a rage:
"Old Xu, if you're not doing well in e-commerce, look for the reasons within yourself instead of always trying to harm others."

"If you do it this way, the Q coin price system will be in chaos."

"QQ's entire value-added services, QQ Games, and QQ Membership, will crash."

"You've dragged our group's stock price, revenue, and profits to rock bottom. You're a sinner for all time!"

The heads of other business units also chimed in, giving Xu Tiannian a thorough dressing-down:

"You've gone mad, ruining the entire group for Paipai.com?"

"Old Xu's behavior is like drinking poison to quench thirst; it's absolutely unacceptable!"

"I personally believe that someone who comes up with such a thoughtless idea is not suitable to be a business unit president."

"That's right, Paipai's transaction volume has been consistently low, we need to investigate that thoroughly!"

……

Xu Tiannian was filled with regret. He had been reckless; his suggestion had affected the interests of too many people!

The entire Tencent Group relies on the Q coin system for profit.

Many users accept it because of the 1:1 exchange rate between QQ coins and RMB.

Even those who sell QQ coins can make a lot of money.

This is absolutely unique in the realm of paid items and in-game currency!
If Xu Tiannian were to follow the example of YouTuan.com and offer QQ coins as a reward for purchases, thus destroying the QQ coin value system, he would be completely doomed.

It would be strange if anyone could accept that!

"Forget about giving away QQ coins. QQ coins are one of our pillars, and we can't let that slip away!"

Chairman Ma made the final decision: "We'll value Future Technology at 5 billion, invest 1 billion, and let's get a stake!"

"This……"

The crowd fell silent, finding it unexpected yet also quite reasonable.

(End of this chapter)