How popular was Happy Farm during the transition from the Web 2.0 era to smartphones?
This game, developed by a few recent college graduates, became popular across the country as soon as it launched.
At its peak, a portal website with a total of 90 million registered users had over 30 million concurrent online users.
Its user base ranged from 80-year-old grandmothers to 10-year-old children, covering internet users of all age groups, triggering a nationwide craze for "stealing vegetables."
Many people set alarms to wake up in the middle of the night to steal vegetables, including Tan Jincheng and Zhang Xupeng in his previous life.
According to incomplete statistics, after Happy Farm was sold to QQ, it brought at least 300 million users to QQ Zone, giving the previously lukewarm QQ Zone the leverage to compete directly with Tieba, blogs, and even Weibo, which had just emerged at that time.
From the perspective of actual value, Happy Farm should have been worth 1 billion, yet the biggest winner was QQ.
The few recent college graduates who founded it didn't actually make much money.
According to online news at the time, these college students apparently sold the full control of Happy Farm to QQ for 3 million yuan.
The so-called full control included updating the game, renaming the game, and delisting the game, and neither the founders nor their company could raise any objections.
Sure enough, not long after, Happy Farm, distributed and operated through QQ channels, was renamed QQ Farm.
The tens of millions of loyal users who originally belonged to Happy Farm on the QQ platform naturally converted into loyal users of QQ Farm.
Selling their entire assets for 3 million yuan, Brother Ma must have been laughing madly back then, right?
Hmm, that paints a picture.
It reminded me of his classic smiling emoji.
College student entrepreneurship inherently comes with several major problems: the lack of funds and resources, and also the differing career plans, visions, and goals after graduation, which easily leads to disintegration.
However, with Tan Jincheng now, the situation of selling for 3 million yuan to QQ naturally wouldn't happen.
Operating a small game like Happy Farm, funds are not lacking.
Resources might be a bit lacking, but it's still better than a few recent college graduates.
Following the path of Happy Farm in his previous life, with the advantage of foresight, the money earned would definitely be more than what those college students made in his previous life.
It generated a total value of 1 billion yuan, so earning 100 million yuan wouldn't be a big problem, right?
"What's the point of looking for me? I don't have that much money to help you. If you're talking about what Qingqing mentioned, I can at most support a few million,"
Gu Hongshun said speechlessly.
"A few million would be remarkable. But please rest assured, Uncle and Auntie, cars are not my main business now. I just got involved by chance and it won't affect my company's cash flow."
"It's good to want to build a career, but don't take too big steps,"
Gu Hongshun sighed.
He couldn't say much else; saying more would be speaking too intimately with someone he didn't know well.
After all, they had only met three times.
But he had to admit, this kid was truly capable.
He started a business less than three years ago and already had the ability to enter the automotive industry.
Even if it was just participating and not building cars himself, that was already extremely remarkable.
But the more this was the case, the more Gu Hongshun worried.
Both families' backgrounds were considered well-matched in social status, but this kid was developing too fast, and the gap was growing wider, which made things a bit difficult.
The poached egg he blurted out and ate too early could well be a form of inner anxiety.
"I know. Currently, I will still focus on two-wheeled electric vehicles. Our company's electric vehicle sales are quite good this year, so I won't easily switch tracks. Investing in the automotive sector is merely to diversify the company's industrial structure."
"You want to go public too?"
Gu Hongshun raised an eyebrow and said.
Traditional manufacturing enterprises wouldn't think about diversifying their business track structure; they would only focus on existing products and enrich their product library.
Electric vehicles, automobiles, plus whatever internet business he mentioned to Qingqing – if the company's main business is complex, there's only one possibility: it wants to go public.
"Of course, this was planned when I collaborated with Beicang District. We definitely have a listing plan for the future,"
Tan Jincheng said confidently.
Given Shanchi Technology's current financial status and its profit expectations for 2006, it has actually already met the standards for a listed company.
However, due to the company's age and the lack of shareholding system reform, it is temporarily unable to go public.
In the era of the registration-based system, the electric vehicle industry, an emerging industry currently supported by the state, already has several companies, including Shanchi Technology, that meet listing standards.
As I recall, the first electric vehicle company to be listed on A-shares was Xinri?
Yadi seemed to be listed on the Hong Kong stock market.
As for which of these two was earlier, I'm not quite sure.
"You young people really have drive. Today was the first time I had a serious talk about business with you, and it made me feel like I'm too old and useless,"
Gu Hongshun said, glancing helplessly at his wife.
"If you're old, you're old. You're already old anyway, and it's good for young people to develop."
"Not at all, Uncle and Auntie are in the prime of their lives and don't look old at all. Especially Auntie, standing with Qingqing, you look like sisters."
"Hahahaha, if you said that in front of Qingqing, she would definitely get angry, calling her old,"
Li Jinzhen laughed heartily.
"Then we won't let her know."
"Alright, alright, you're a big boss after all, stop with these empty compliments. Tell me about this internet company you mentioned?"
Gu Hongshun couldn't stand it anymore.
Li Jinzhen became unhappy at this.
"What do you mean by empty compliments? What's the meaning of your words?"
"No meaning, no meaning at all. I didn't think before I spoke."
"The internet company is called Orange Technology. Initially, we plan to make some small games for trial operation. If the results are good, we will continue to develop more games. Later, we will adjust the company's operational strategy according to the development of the internet.
Currently, the team is already being prepared, the company's office location has been selected, and some personnel have been recruited. Next, we will enter into game development, and I already have some small ideas for game development."
"Is it something like Legend in internet cafes?"
Gu Hongshun frowned and said.
Usually having nothing else to do, Gu Hongshun would also go to internet cafes with friends to catch children playing games.
To be honest, his generation had no fondness for online games, so when Tan Jincheng said the internet company would make games, he couldn't quite accept it.
There was no helping it.
In previous years, "experts" and the media had campaigned too strongly, and the idea that the internet poisoned the minds of a generation was almost engraved in the hearts of most ordinary parents.
Schools like electric shock treatment centers, which severely infringe upon human rights, were considered reasonable and legitimate in that era.
But at the same time, Gu Hongshun, having done business, didn't know how games should operate, but he did know they were very profitable.
In 2004, Boss Chen, at only 30 years old, became the richest person in China with the game Legend.
The sensation it caused, even after more than a year, was still fresh in people's minds.
Gu Hongshun knew that the game industry was profitable, but in his heart, he was still somewhat resistant.
However, this was not something he could decide.
"Whatever you do, you must have your reasons. I won't interfere, and I can't interfere. If you really need money, I can offer a little, but not much. I can only provide up to 3 million yuan."
Just the rent from shops in the International Trade City alone amounted to nearly 4 million yuan a year.
In terms of net worth, Gu Hongshun could definitely be considered to have tens of millions, but his money couldn't all be sitting in the bank; more of it was converted into real estate.
If he were to really push himself to raise money, raising ten or twenty million would be no problem at all, but Gu Hongshun definitely wouldn't do that.
Taking a portion from his liquid assets to support would be enough.
In case this kid's venture fails, it would also be good to leave a path open for Qingqing and him.
This was the wisdom of a generation; they were not accustomed to putting all their eggs in one basket.
"That's enough. We're not developing large-scale games, so 3 million yuan is sufficient. However, there might not be too many shares,"
Tan Jincheng said so.
Investing was just to give Gu Qingqing an endeavor, so that the gap between them wouldn't be so exaggerated.
Tan Jincheng didn't really care how much money it was.
Developing and operating Happy Farm alone wouldn't cost too much money.
Once it becomes popular, Tan Jincheng will still follow the path of Happy Farm in his previous life, selling it to QQ and making a fortune.
After all, if it really had to compete with QQ, Happy Farm simply couldn't win; their copying had no bottom line.
This was not 10-odd years later when copyright awareness would be highly valued.
QQ was not yet an unshakeable behemoth, and they were capable of actions that scared even Zhou Hongyi into hiding, so they had no need to care about appearances.
In those days, there were actually many shameless incidents.
Take Zhongtai's car emblem in his previous life, for example; it was deceptively acquired.
Isn't that amazing?
Zhongtai in his previous life initially used an A-shaped emblem of unclear meaning, and later gradually changed to a Z-shaped emblem, representing Zhongtai, Zhejiang Province, and China, a triple meaning.
But this car emblem was quite amusing.
Earlier this year, a designer who loved redesigning car emblems for car manufacturers thought Zhongtai's A-shaped emblem was too ugly, so he sent two sets of design samples to Zhongtai.
Unexpectedly, Zhongtai actually replied to him, inviting him for an interview and asking for an electronic version of the manuscript.
The young designer didn't even collect a deposit and directly sent the draft over.
From then on, he never heard back again.
It wasn't until the trademarks were registered one after another and had been in use ever since that the designer realized he had been scammed for his design.
Isn't it funny?
But Zhongtai didn't care about him.
Even if sued, the emblem was used until 2023.
This incident was quite amusing back then.
Everyone laughed at Zhongtai for being shameless, but in an era when copyright awareness was unclear, such things were all too common.
If QQ were to shamelessly and aggressively copy Happy Farm, which Tan Jincheng developed, while he wouldn't be completely without room for resistance like that designer, he also wouldn't have many options.
Of course, in this life, Zhongtai hadn't been involved in such design scams.
Tan Jincheng had seen the draft of this Z-shaped car emblem.
Considering the possibility of acquiring Zhongtai in the future, he also advised Ying Jianren to send another sum of money to the designer.
After all, the person was just an amateur enthusiast, and it wouldn't cost much, so there was no need to damage their reputation.
Ying Jianren heeded the advice, and thinking it was better to have one less problem than one more, he had the finance department transfer 300,000 yuan to the designer.
——
From a business perspective, a company's shares can be divided into capital shares and human capital shares.
Generally, capital shares account for 60%, and human capital shares account for 40%.
When Tan Jincheng and Zhang Xupeng partnered to start a company, although Tan Jincheng handled the business development, Zhang Xupeng, who was responsible for logistics, human resources, and OEM production, was equally important.
Without a suitable and trustworthy person, it's possible for your company to be emptied out while you're doing business development.
Additionally, it's common for OEM factories to collude against you, take kickbacks, and shortchange on quality and quantity.
Therefore, in terms of human capital shares, Tan Jincheng and Zhang Xupeng divided them equally, so the shares were generally allocated through negotiation based on their investment proportions.
In a company partnership, the taboos in share allocation are equal division and a single dominant shareholder.
Equal division means no clear leader and no real decision-maker, while a single dominant shareholder means small shareholders lack a sense of participation.
The ideal allocation method is 70% to 30% or 80% to 20%, allowing both parties to have a sense of participation without leading to disagreements over decision-making power.
In fact, the initial share allocation method for Jinpeng Trade was also unreasonable.
However, at that time, neither Tan Jincheng nor Zhang Xupeng considered it much.
Zhang Xupeng didn't understand it at all, while Tan Jincheng continued the mindset from his previous life when the two were partners.
In his previous life, their shares were still equally divided, and no problems arose, so Tan Jincheng didn't pay too much attention to it then.
As for the bonus from memories of his previous life, it was somewhat useful in business, but not exceptionally useful.
For example, Tan Jincheng knew Zhongtai's development trajectory, but what good was knowing it?
If you approach them yourself, they won't bother with you; it's no use at all.
You still need to involve Beicang Government.
The same goes for doing business development; it relies more on your business capabilities.
Memories from his previous life could only help him grasp the general direction, so Tan Jincheng didn't feel that Zhang Xupeng gained much advantage when the shares were initially allocated.
However, this time, having Gu Hongshun invest in Orange Technology in Gu Qingqing's name was different.
This time, Tan Jincheng was fully prepared; it was more like a ride-along investment, and he himself wasn't lacking initial capital.
If it were someone else, Tan Jincheng wouldn't let them invest easily.
Therefore, on the issue of share allocation, Tan Jincheng would adhere to a business-like attitude.
In terms of psychological acceptance, Tan Jincheng would at most be willing to give up 20% of the shares.
After all, Orange Technology was an internet-oriented company, and the possibility of future fundraising also needed to be considered.
This round was equivalent to venture capital.
With a certain degree of confidence, Tan Jincheng was naturally unwilling to give up too many shares to "venture capital" institutions.
"As for the shares, you can decide how much to give. Anyway, I don't understand anything about the internet, just put it under Qingqing's name,"
Gu Hongshun said indifferently.
"Hmm, actually, the best way would still be to establish a company and participate in the investment in the company's name, which would be better than as an individual. Additionally, my assistant has a planning proposal; you can take a look at it then,"
Tan Jincheng reminded.
"Let's wait until Qingqing comes back tonight, then discuss it tomorrow. No rush."
It was only about 3 million yuan, less than a year's rent.
How could he be in the mood to listen to all that?
"Alright then, I'll tell her when Qingqing gets back."
Tan Jincheng also saw that Gu Hongshun didn't really care about the 3 million yuan, so he didn't continue speaking.
As if by providence, Happy Farm in his previous life ended after being bought out for 3 million yuan.
Now, due to Tan Jincheng's early intervention, Happy Farm officially began its project after receiving an investment of 3 million yuan.
(End of Chapter)